3C2A Swim/Dive Championships, Day 1: Meet Records Fall In Exciting Opening

Thursday's Complete Results l Day 1 Photos

SANTA ROSA - In previous state meets, the feeling was that East Los Angeles College and its indoor swim stadium with its "fast pool" was a big help in establishing numerous records. But even a change to first Orange Coast College last year and now Santa Rosa Junior College this year has further pushed the more accurate notion that today's student-athletes are simply better than ever.

State meet records were turned in by both American River's men's 400-yard medley relay and their speedy Beavers' swimmer Cayden Pitzer, and Grossmont's women's swimmer Camille Seiley to highlight the opening day of the 3C2A State Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday.

Pitzer established the state meet record in the 200 individual medley during the morning prelims at 1:46.80, breaking the mark of 1:47.36 set by San Diego Mesa's Neil Franka in 2016. Pitzer later helped American River's 400 medley relay squad break another state meet record of 3:16.58.

On the women's side, Seiley made history by snapping a 16-year-old record as she swam a 23.16 to win the 50 freestyle. 

In the team standings, Mt. San Antonio is out in front on the women's side with 154 points, followed by defending champion Santa Barbara's 133. The men is paced by American River in a slight 1-point edge over state defending champ Sierra's 140.

Team Standings

WOMEN-1. Mt. San Antonio 154, 2. Santa Barbara 133, 3. American River 111, 4. Diablo Valley, Santa Rosa 88, 6. Orange Coast 85, 7. Grossmont 80, 8. Sierra 71, 9. San Joaquin Delta 54, 10. El Camino 50.

MEN-1. American River 141, 2. Sierra 140, 3. Riverside 114, 4. Mt. San Antonio 113, 5. Orange Coast 101, 6. Cuesta 88, 7. Diablo Valley 83, 8. Golden West 64, 9. Bakersfield 55, 10. Ohlone 52.  

Thursday, May 1 Event by Event Results 

Event 1-W-200 Freestyle Relay: Champion-Santa Barbara, 1:37.11 (Lily Carrick Erin Otsuki, Leah Rummelhoff, Maddie Myers), 2. Mt. San Antonio, 1:37.87, 3. American River 1:38.75. Myers uses an explosive 23.47 final anchor leg to lift the Vaqueros to this relay title. 
Event 2-M-200 Freestyle Relay: Champion-American River, 1:21.66 (Gar Long, John Branson, David Tsypan, Cayden Pitzer), 2. Riverside City, 1:22.08, 3. Diablo Valley 1:22.91. ARC's final two swimmers were vital in sending the Beavers to the first relay title. 
Event 3-W-500 Freestyle: Champion-Lily Carrick, 5:00.64, 2. Maria Garcia-Hale, Grossmont, 5:10.26, 3. Paige Fast, Mt. San Antonio, 5:11.87. Carrick blows away the field to win by nearly 9.5 seconds over the nearest competitor. Carrick beat her time of 5:01.03 last year (silver) but gets to taste the victory gold as a sophomore.
Event 4-M-500 Freestyle: Champion-Grant Huston, 4:24.98, 2. Ryan Novak, Golden West, 4:32.30, 3. Troy Quintana, Sierra, 4:35.52. Huston runs away with the event title, defeating GWC's Novak by 7.32 seconds. 
Event 5-W-200 Individual Medley: Champion-Noemi Bravo-Guzman, Allan Hancock, 2:05.71, 2. Iyanah Samayoa, El Camino, 2:06, 3. Sydney Fortune, San Diego Mesa, 2:07.48. Bravo-Guzman broke out well in the opening butterfly, and then turned it up in the final freestyle leg to unseat last year's state champ Samayoa, who finished in a flourish only to be beat be beat by .29.
Event 6-M-200 Individual Medley: Champion-Cayden Pitzer, American River, 1:47.63, 2. Genoa Nixon, Sierra, 1:50.73, 3. Nathan D'Oloisio, Long Beach City, 1:51.52. STATE MEET RECORD--Pitzer, 1:46.80, Pitzer sets a new state meet record in the prelims and a great swim in the final isn't diminished as he proves he is the best medley champ in CCC history.
Event 7-W-50 Freestyle: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion-Camille Seiley, Grossmont, 23.16, 2. Caitlin Wham, American River, 23.72, Carolyn Kao, Mt. San Antonio, 24.29. Seiley repeats and does it in style with a new meet record, defeating the old record of 23.24 set by Diablo Valley's Kimberly Bierwith in 2009. Seiley actually broke her own state record set earlier in the evening on her opening split of the 200 freestyle relay,
Event 8-M-50 Freestyle: Champion--Cody Hart, Bakersfield, 20.22, 2. Josh Branson, American River, 20.50, 3. Zeke Serrano, Riverside, 20.58. Hart ups his game and takes the sprint by .28 over Branson. 
Event 9-W-400 Medley Relay: Champion-Mt. San Antonio (Paige Fast, Spencer Damaske, Elleanna Ramos, Carolyn Kao), 3:56.60, 2. American River, 3:57.27, 3. Santa Barbara 4:01.73. The Mounties put up a '25 season best relay to win the title.
Event 10-M-400 Medley Relay: STATE MEET RECORD: Champion-American River (Branson, Pitzer, Tsypan, Long), 3:16.58, 2. Riverside, 3:19.23, 3. Sierra, 3:23.37. ARC snaps the 2023 record set by Orange Coast, breaking it by a whopping .82 of a second. 
Event 11-W-1-Meter Diving: Champion-Ciera Center, LA Valley, 276.50 points, 2. Sarah Dorn, Las Positas, 229.10, 3. Ainsley Wade, Las Positas, 222.95. Center was the center of attention for good reason as the Monarch diver scored the low board title by being consistent throughout, scoring 47 or more points on each of her last five attempts. Her third attempt, a reverse 1-1/2 somersault tuck tallied her an event-high dive of 49.5 points. Dorn wins the silver for the second straight season using a forward 2-1/2 somersault tuck for 48 points as her best dive in edging out Wade by just 6.15. 
Event 12-M-3-Meter Diving: Champion-Ben Lentz, Marin, 262.85 points, 2. Dylan McQuade, San Diego Mesa, 234.50, 3. Ethan Rij, Clovis, 224.05. Lentz, the NorCal champion, grabs the high board gold as he opened with his highest scoring dive of 59.4 on an inward 2-1/2 somersault tuck, and finished with his last three dives collecting 40 or more points. McQuade used his experience of finishing fourth last year to move up to the silver, but after a 56.4 on the same high-score dive as Lentz on his second attempt, he lost ground over his next three dives. SoCal champ Niccolo Scornaienghi, from Cypress, settled for fourth at 211.80.

Release by Robert Lewis, 3C2A Event Writer