Both swim teams placed lower than their meet at Palomar, with men coming in fifth place, and women coming in fourth place.
The meet took place at Rio Hondo College Friday, Feb. 19 and Saturday Feb. 20.
This was a drastic turn around for the women’s swim team, who took first place in the event that kicked off their season.
Freshman swimmer, Valeria Sanchez, acknowledged that the team made little mistakes.
Sanchez expressed that at the meet her swimming wasn’t that good.
The team’s fourth place finish earned the team a total of 132 points. The team gathered most of its points from the 200-medley relay.
Swimmers Elizabeth Alfaro, Claudia Martinez, Channon Owens, and Scarled Murillo, finished the race in 2:08.95. East Los Angeles College pushed them out of 3rd place with a time of 2:08.41
According to women’s head coach Sergio Macias, a lot of the swimmers had a chance to compete in events that showed off each of the women’s focus for the season.
On the other hand, Aliah Richardson and Amanda Rabb, both earned first place finishes in the diving portion of the meet.
Both women were the only two to compete in the 3-meter event and the 1-meter event, on the team.
Richardson, who is a freshman, came in first place in the 3-meter event with a total of 112.65 points.
Rabb, a returning sophomore, earned first place in the one-meter, with a total of 108.30.
Macias said, “Our dive coach Kaeden [Kraft] has been putting in some quality time working with our divers and just like our swimmers, I am sure they will continue to improve their overall score.”
Although men’s swimming placed slightly lower than their first meet as well, head coach Joe Abing, didn’t seem worried about the team’s standing.
He stated, “We’re improving, and in swimming that’s all you’re trying to do is improve through conditioning, technique, how your [the swim team] starting a race, and your mental preparation.
“It was just a good experience to have more opportunites for us to race,” Abing expressed.
Mitchell Bowman and Paul Vega, both competed in the 100-yard backstroke. Bowman finished in eleventh place at 1:03.95, while Vega finished under him in 1:04.30.
According to Vega, a freshman swimmer, he feels that the overall standing for the team at the meet may have come from focusing all of their attention on first place.
He said, “Sometimes when you focus on first place you forget the little aspects of trying not to do the wrong things.
“I just feel like we had our mind set on the wrong goal that day, and I feel like we should’ve had our mind set on the little things to help keep us focused.”
The highlight of the event for the team was freshman swimmer, Jesus Rojas, taking half of first place for the 100-yard butterfly.
Rojas finished the race at 55.92, as well as swimmer Philip Wright from Mt. San Antonio.
Concerning Rojas’ win for the day, Abing admitted, “that was Rojas’ best stroke. We do different sets that focus on each of their best strokes, so I’m not surprised at all.”
With the next approaching swim meet around the corner on Friday, both men’s and women’s will be going against some top So-Cal teams.
