Amanda Loya will be the lone woman swimmer representing Cerritos College this weekend at the CCCAA State Championships.
The South Coast Conference Championships had the women’s swim team place in fourth for all three days. The end result ended up having Loya qualify for state championships from Thursday to Saturday.
Her performance had her break Cerritos College’s record for breaststroke, again.
Breaking it for a consecutive time the year prior, this time Loya finished her 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:27.77, finishing in second place.
“It feels really good to break the record,” she said. “I broke it last year and that felt good. And when I broke it this year and lowered it, it’s the best feeling to know you have that record.”
Last year, she participated in state alongside fellow breaststroke swimmer Carla Harvey. This time, it’s all on her, as she puts it.
“With it being only me representing the school, all of the pressure is on me to do well and represent the school well and not embarass myself,” she said.
SCC Championships was the first time community colleges swam a 200-yard event after increasing the distance to match “UC standards” back in March.
Despite the unfamiliarity with the distance, Loya’s goal-oriented attitude led her to accomplish the task. And it will be no different come Thursday.
She said, “My goals for this weekend is to just do my very best. Right now, I am seeded third for both my breast events, and sixth in my IM. One goal is to try and improve my seed and move up a few spots.”
For CCCAA State Championships, Loya will be swimming the 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breaststroke and 200 IM.
Head coach Sergio Macias said that with the week off after SCC Championships, she has been implementing lots of endurance sets into her workouts.
He said. “If she duplicates her performance from conference championships, it will be another exceptional weekend for her.”
This season, the women’s swim team’s conference rank went up to No. 4 out of nine teams.
There will be a lot of competition for Loya this weekend.
Macias said, “Some of the best state individual swimmers will come from our conference, so just the depth of competition in each event is what will stand out the most.”
Loya is ready.
“I want to leave Cerritos with a bang,” she said.
