Ventura's Chung, Tang win state titles

Henry Chung defended his title. Natasha Tang celebrated her state debut with a championship of her own.

Both of Ventura College's superstars shone on the biggest stage Thursday night as the three-day CCCAA Swimming and Diving Championships opened at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park.

Chung defended his state title in the men's 50-yard freestyle sprint in 20.46 seconds.

"It's not a good time for me, but I can't look back," said Chung, who became the second swimmer in state history to break the 20-second barrier at last weekend's Western State Conference championships.

"But I have to keep going. I'll try my best the rest of the meet."

The sophomore improved to 4-0 all-time in individual events in the state meet. Chung will attempt to defend his title in the 100 backstroke Friday. His competitors were treated to a preview Thursday, when Chung swam a strong time of 48.9 seconds leading off the 400 medley relay.

"I'm going to try to break my record," Chung said. "I'm going to push myself."

Tang jumped out to a huge lead in the women's 500 freestyle, challenging the state record before cruising home in 4:56.82, nearly 20 seconds ahead of second place.

"Natasha did a terrific job," Ventura coach Larry Baratte said. "She took off pretty strong in the beginning and her splits fell off a little. ... She wanted to break the record and in order to do that, you have to get out real fast."

The freshman finished about three seconds off the state-record pace. Tang will swim her most competitive individual event, the 200 freestyle, on Friday, when the distance specialist is seeded No. 2 behind sprinter Zeineb Kalfallah of Golden West.

Both the VC men and women were in fourth place after the first day of the three-day meet, trailing first-place Golden West 144-97 in the men's meet and 146-112 in the women's meet.

Sophomore Abby Puczkowski finished fifth (24.50) in the women's 50-yard free. Sophomore Taylor Amstutz followed in 12th (24.94). Sophomore Jessie Ball finished eighth (1:02.69) in the 100 individual medley.

Nick Vallejo (11th, 4:42.99), Nic Lum (14th, 4:44.86) and Jose Souza (15th, 4:47.35) scored points in the men's 500 freestyle. Dillon Cleavenger followed Chung with a 15th-place finish (21.73) in the men's 50 freestyle.

VC finished fourth in both the women's (1:37.47) and men's (1:24.39) 200 free relays.

The quartet of Chung, Joe Yamamoto, Vallejo and Lum finished second (3:26.50) in the men's 400 medley relay. The team of Christina Robledo, Amstutz, Gaby Romero and Tang finished third (3:59.84) in the women's 400 medley relay.