Women's diving record highlights Day 1 of State Swim Meet

Amy Crayne in action during her state-record 1-meter diving board title Thursday at the CCCAA State Meet, photo by David Sanborn

May 2, 2019

By Robert Lewis, CCCSIA

CUPERTINO - American River College diver Amy Crayne stole the show on Day 1 of the California Community College Athletic Association 2019 State Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. Crayne set a state record and did so with a fabulous final dive to win the 1-meter board competition Thursday at De Anza College.

Crayne needed a big score on her final dive and she got it with an average 7s across the board for 49 points from the seven judges with an outstanding execution of a front 1-1/2 full twist.

It gave her 261.40 points to break the record set just last year by Cypress champion Alejandra Gomez (254.10). Crayne was the state's top-scoring diver coming into the state meet with a previous high score of 254.75. She won by nearly 78 points overall.

On the women's team side, Orange Coast began its defense of its '18 state title in style, including two relay victories. The Pirates lead the standings with 174 points, followed by Diablo Valley (116) and San Diego Mesa (111).

As expected on the men's team side, it's the Battle of the Big 8 as conference runner-up Diablo Valley (163) leads conference champ Sierra (150) by just 13 points. Featuring its strongest team ever, Mt. San Antonio is in third with 92 points. DVC and Sierra each had two wins on Day 1, including one relay each.

The state meet continues Friday-Saturday, May 3-4. Prelims at 9 a.m. and the finals at 4 p.m. (Diving at 12 noon on Friday).

WOMEN STANDINGS
1. Orange Coast, 2. Diablo Valley 116, 3. San Diego Mesa 111, 4. Las Positas 92, T5. American River, Sierra 82, 7. San Joaquin Delta 63, 8. Santa Rosa, T9. Ventura, Santa Barbara 51.

MEN STANDINGS
1. Diablo Valley 163, 2. Sierra 150, 3. Mt. San Antonio 92, 4. Riverside 88, 5. Santa Rosa 78, T6. Grossmont, Las Positas 72, T8. Merced 57, Santa Monica, T10. San Joaquin Delta, Bakersfield 46.

EVENT-BY-EVENT CAPSULES

THURSDAY'S DAY 1 RESULTS
W-200 Freestyle Relay
1. Orange Coast, 1:37.69 (Meghan Cluck, Kylie McCormick, Cheyenne Morris, Kennedy Hood)
The Pirates familiar faces returned to the De Anza pool and repeated their opening performance win of a year a ago with a fast 23.65 opening split by Kluck and then Hood's explosive final 50 of 23.56. They needed every bit of those quick splits to beat top seed and second place San Diego Mesa by just under a second (1:38.68) as Mesa was within .13 of OCC after 150 yards, including Allyson Hansen's 24.19 opening 50. Santa Rosa was third (1:40.34) and Diablo Valley a close fourth (1:40.74).

M-200 Freestyle Relay
1. Diablo Valley (1:22.19, Kai Nashan, Matt Peterson, Sean Remmert, Christian Henry) (1:23.08)
The Vikings used a state-best time this year, beating their top seed mark by .89 thanks to Nashan's speedy 20.33 opening 50 to win the opening relay. Sierra's Daniel Ilin swam an impressive 20.35 final 50 but it only sealed second for the Wolverines (1:23.95), still a long .75 behind the champions. Riverside took third (1:24.41).

W-500 Freestyle
1. Ida Due, El Camino, 5:03.14
Due swam stroke for stroke with Delta talent and top seed Madeline Wittkowske and managed to beat her in the final 50, winning by .58. Wittkowske (5:03.72) settled for a silver for the second straight year. Orange Coast's Amber Theders was third in 5:06.89.

M-500 Freestyle
1. Daniel Ilin, Sierra, 4:30.11
While he didn't match his 4:26 second-place finish of last year, Ilin ran away with this year's title by a whopping 10 seconds faster than second-place finisher Aziz Jaouhar of El Camino (4:40.14). Diablo Valley's Kenneth Suhaili placed third in 4:40.64.

W-200 IM
1. Caitlin Hecker, Los Angeles Valley, 2:09.72
As often happens in state meet races, a fast start can make a world of difference and it was the case for champion Hecker who swam 26.90 to grab a first split lead of 1.5 seconds in the butterfly over the rest of the field. However, Allan Hancock's Izzie Fraire grabbed a lead in the breaststroke split before Hecker swam furiously in the final 50 freestyle to beat Fraire by just .07 of a second for the gold. Original top seed Mia Ruffin of Diablo Valley settled for third in 2:10.16.

M-200 IM
1. Jason Harary, Mt. San Antonio, 1:49.63
Sierrra's Eric Thias jumped out to the lead after 100 yards, but in the third breaststroke leg Harary took over and his 31.32 split pushed him past Thias' 33.26. Harary went on to post a 1.52 second victory while Thias (1:51.15) took the silver. Riverside's Erick Fathoni couldn't match his top seed time and took the bronze in 1:52.40.

W-50 Freestyle
1. Meghan Kluck, Orange Coast, 23.86
Kluck outclassed '18 champion and OCC teammate Hood to win the sprint. She defeated Hood (24.07) by .21 after finishing second to Hood last year. DVC's Taylor Cossu grabbed third in 24.20.

M-50 Freestyle
1. Kai Nashan, Diablo Valley, 20.38
Buoyed by his fast relay earlier in the day, Nashan proved the fastest sprint swimmer of 2019 with a .14 win over Vikings teammate Christian Henry (20.52, second) while top seed Cooper Fuchs of Ventura placed third in 20.57.

W-400 Medley Relay
1. Orange Coast, 3:57.32 (Riley Crow, Kluck, McCormick, Morris)
The formula was easy for OCC as it just added Crow's excellent butterfly start (28.92) to three swimmers who were part of last year's monster 3:52 win and it resulted in a strong 3.91 second victory. Sierra scored second in 4:00.59 while Diablo Valley was third with a 4:03.80.

M-400 Medley Relay
1. Sierra, 3:23.95 (Carson Van Farowe, Noah Scholar, Eric Thias, Daniel Ilin)
By nearly matching their state-best regular season time, the Wolverines did what they needed to do to get past second-place Santa Monica (3:24.63) by a healthy .68 of a second. SMC led after 300 yards, but Ilin stormed on his 100 freestyle anchor leg with a 44.86. Mt. San Antonio placed third in 3:26.14, holding off Diablo Valley (fourth, 3:26.78) and Las Positas (fifth, 3:26.78).

W-1-Meter Diving Board
1. Amy Crayne, American River, 261.40 (New State Record)
For the second straight year, the short board record fell by the wayside as Crayne set the new gold standard by 7.30 points over last year's record-holder Alejandra Gomez of Cypress. El Camino's Athena Katsouridis grabbed the silver with 183.60 points and Shasta's Angelique Passidakis scored bronze in 181.50.

M-3-Meter Diving Board
1. Josh Hamby, San Joaquin Delta, 311.60
Hamby was the only 300-plus point scorer a year ago and he did it again on the high board to repeat as state champ. Hamby won by nearly 52 points more than second-place Rio Hondo's Aaron Augustine (259.95). Hometown diver Joseph Heilman (De Anza) placed third with 241.40.