Men's Records And OCC Women Wins Continue On Day 2

May 6, 2016

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On Day 2 of the California Community College Athletic Association Swimming and Diving State Championships, Orange Coast College's women continued to pile up the victories while the men's competition produced some powerful state meet records on Friday.

The Pirates, who won five events on the opening day, won five more swim events to give them a dominating 10 golds out of 12 races. OCC is running away with the state team standings, now with 382 points. Sierra is a distant second with 250 and Santa Rosa is third with 200.

In the men's team race, Sierra has taken a strong lead over Golden West with the Wolverines now at 360.5 and the Rustler at 306. Riverside is third with 273.

The day's biggest stunner was two swimmers from the same college breaking a state meet record in the same race—the men's 100 butterfly as San Diego Mesa's Brandon Crabtree and Neil Franka smashed a 15-year old finals record. Crabtree swam 47.95 while Franka 48.10 (the old mark was 48.13 in 2001 by Orange Coast's Tyler Townsend).

Jonathan Panchak of Orange Coast had a monster performance as he first set the state meet record in the 100 breaststroke in the morning prelims at 54.50, then beat that in winning the evening championship final in 54.35.

WOMEN STANDINGS: 1. Orange Coast 382, 2. Sierra 250, 3. Santa Rosa 212, 4. Santa Barbara 200, 5. Las Positas 194, 6. Golden West 171, 7. San Mateo 163, 8. Riverside 152, 9. Foothill 139, 10. Grossmont 121.5

MEN STANDINGS: 1. Sierra 360.5, 2. Golden West 306, 3. Riverside 273, 4. Orange Coast 257, 5. San Diego Mesa 206, 6. Diablo Valley 193, 7. Santa Rosa 190.5, 8. Las Positas 181, 9. Foothill 90, 10. Mt. San Antonio 69

Event 13: Women's 200 Medley Relay: 1. Orange Coast, 1:44.27
(Lauren Weins, Hannah Veseth, Alexa Clayfield, Rebecca Aguilar)
*State Meet Record
The Pirates threw in a meet record here, breaking the 2-year-old mark of Diablo Valley by .82 of a second. The speedy duo of Clayfield and Aguilar swam a combined 47.81 over the final 100 yards but it was Veseth's breaststroke leg of 29.53 that towered the field and set up the record. Both Aguilar and Clayfield were on last year's OCC title relay. San Mateo placed second at 1:49.05 and Santa Barbara was third (1:51.54).

Event 14: Men's 200 Medley Relay: 1. Diablo Valley, 1:31.30
(Brandon James, Drew Pitcher, Jacob Frigard, Garrett Middleton)
Orange Coast, Sierra and San Diego Mesa tried to keep pace, but DVC repeated as champions in the sprint relay. James and Frigard returned to help in the victory. Mesa's Brandon Crabtree swam a 19.6 anchor leg but Middleton's 20.19 prevented the other teams from overtaking the Vikings. OCC was second at 1:32.35, Sierra third (1:32.59) and Mesa right behind at 1:32.69.

Event 15: Women's 400 Individual Medley: 1. Alexa Clayfield, Orange Coast, 4:31.85
Orange Coast made it 7-for-7 in swim event wins as Clayfield just missed catching SBCC's Rachelle Visser's meet record by .12. The Pirate won by a large margin, 7.67 seconds over second place Yurie Akimoto of De Anza (4:39.52). Palomar's Michelle Jacob was third in 4:40.03. Clayfield picked up gold medals in both IM events.

Event 16: Men's 400 Individual Medley: 1. Alex Durham, Riverside, 4:02.67
Durham was fifth after the opening 100 butterfly, but by the time he finished his backstroke leg he had taken the lead for good in surpassing Alejandro Vassallo of Golden West (4:04.44). Vassallo had to fight off Orange Coast's Tyler Connors (third, 4:04.63) and Las Positas' Emil Graversen (fourth, 4:04.68) for the silver.

Event 17: Women's 100 Butterfly: 1. Madison Varisco, Golden West, 56.47
Varisco snapped Orange Coast's winning streak as she became a repeat champion in the event. San Mateo's Morgan Smith challenged Varisco with the field's fastest final 50 (second, 29.88) but ultimately it was Varisco's opening 26.16 that shut down any chance of an upset. Chabot's Madison Faulkner took third in 58.76.

Event 18: Men's 100 Butterfly: 1. Brandon Crabtree, San Diego Mesa, 47.95
*Double State Meet Record
As mentioned in the opening of the release, the Olympians were truly Olympic like as Crabtree and teammate Neil Franka (48.10) were stroke for stroke throughout the race and it resulted with both smashing the 15-year-old meet record. Crabtree's 22.31 opening 50 kept Franka in pursuit but at the close Crabtree held on for gold. Sierra's Andrew Murch took bronze for the second straight year at 48.73.

Event 19: Women's 200 Freestyle: 1. Rebecca Aguilar, Orange Coast, 1:51.15
After her silver last year, Aguilar was determined and won the gold in the longer freestyle, beating second-place and Orange Coast teammate Sierra Cox by 3.39 seconds (1:54.54). Cox actually set up Aguilar, serving as a rabbit by jumping out to a 55.91 leading split at the midway point. Aguilar then got faster as the rest of the field went the other direction. Aguilar was the only swimmer to have under-28 second splits over the final 100 yards. Golden West's Susanna Gonzales placed third at 1:54.90

Event 20: Men's 200 Freestyle: 1. Chadd Maurer, Golden West, 1:39.04
In a classic duel, Maurer swam to the event victory out-touching Orange Coast's Sooud Altayyar at the finish (second, 1:39.12). Altayyar led by as much as .78 of a second after the first 100, but Maurer had an explosive third leg of 24.86 (fastest split in field) and then overtook Altayyar in the last 25 yards with a 25.53 final 50. Sierra's Slava Illin took third in 1:40.30.

Event 21: Women's 100 Breaststroke: 1. Hannah Veseth, Orange Coast, 1:06.07
In another exciting closing, Veseth took gold despite a furious pursuit by Foothill's Layna Auchard (1:06.14) with Veseth getting her hand to the wall in a near photo finish. Orange Coast won for the ninth time in 10 swim only events. OCC's Nacinda Paap picked up the bronze in 1:06.95.

Event 22: Men's 100 Breaststroke: 1. Jonathan Panchak, Orange Coast, 54.35
*State Meet Record
In the prelims, Panchak snapped a 10-year-old state record in the event at 54.50, so naturally the OCC swimmer decided to top that by winning the title with another meet record flourish. Sierra's Alex Shibata was second (56.51) and the Santa Rosa pair of Jesse Schmidt (57.24) and Bradley-John Erickson (57.26) placed third and fourth, respectively.

Event 23: Women's 100 Backstroke: 1. Erica Vong, San Mateo, 54.93
Vong made history as the first-ever state champion for College of San Mateo women. Her lightning final 50 of 28.38 not only put an end to Golden West's Madison Varisco's bid for a repeat title (second, 55.43) but nearly caught a 13-year-old meet record. Orange Coast's Sherry Tsai can breathe a sigh of relief as her 54.86 mark still stands from 2003. OCC's Lauren Weins placed third at 57.70.

Event 24: Men's 100 Backstroke: 1. Brandon James, Diablo Valley, 48.37
James tried but couldn't catch his own state meet record of a year ago (47.90 in the medley relay) as he repeated as champion here. Golden West's Connor Paterson finished in second at 49.39 while Sierra's Alex Siniy was third at 50.26.

Event 25: Women's 800 Freestyle Relay: 1. Orange Coast, 7:38.59
(Nacinda Paap, Alexa Clayfield, Sierra Cox, Rebecca Aguilar)
The Pirates kept rolling along as they reached double digits in gold medals with the long relay win. It was indeed a blowout as they beat second-place Golden West by exactly 17 seconds (7:55.59). Aguilar had the fastest 200 split of any swimmer for the second straight year with her anchor 1:51.28. Santa Barbara (third, 7:58.79) and Sierra (fourth, 7:58.86) meant that four teams broke the 8-minute mark.

Event 26: Men's 800 Freestyle Relay: 1. Riverside, 6:44.25
(Adrien Deloffre, Maxence Bouvier, Alex Durham, Garret Shimko)
No swimmer in the field could match the 1:38.99 second leg of Bouvier as the Tigers beat out Sierra (6:45.42) for relay gold. Orange Coast was third (6:49.47) and Golden West was fourth (6:49.63). Shimko's 1:40.04 anchor sealed the deal for Riverside.

Event 27: Women's 3-Meter Dive: 1. Nicole Cox, Sierra, 255.75
The name Cox will always be synonymous with diving champion as the Sierra diver won the high board title by 46 points over defending state champion Emily Dunkerson (Riverside, 209.60). Cox is coached by her brother, Brandon Cox, who set the state meet high-scoring records in the men's 1-meter and 3-meter board events in 2014. The younger Cox used her opening high-score dive to set the tone as she scored 50.40 points on a back 1-and-1/2 straight. Las Positas' Kaitlin Hausemann placed third with 207 points.

Event 28: Men's 1-Meter Dive: 1. Jacob Swanson, Saddleback, 299.00
Swanson is a double diving champion with a strong performance for the 1-meter board title. He scored a dive-high 57 points with an inward 1-and-1/2 half pike on his fourth attempt. Sierra's Austin Foote grabbed silver for the second straight year at 230.30 while Matt Alvarado of Las Positas was third (205.65). Riverside's Jakob Wood also broke the 200-point mark at 201.75.

Release by Robert Lewis, CCCSIA, CCCAA Meet SID
Pool side contact number 818-679-1335

photo by Richard Quinton