From past swim meets this season, leading up to the invitational at Golden West College on Friday Feb. 26, the men have repeatedly come in a lower place than the last.
The men came in sixth place at the event.
On the other hand, the women appear to have plateaued at fourth place again.
The men’s swim team earned a total of 508 points.
Jeffery Park swam the 100-yard IM in 1:03.41. His time placed him in sixth place for the race.
Swimmer, Daniel Loeza, swam the 50-yard breaststroke in 30.61, putting him in seventh place.
Men’s head coach, Joe Abing, expressed a difference of opinion concerning the team’s down-sliding overall results in the invitational.
He said, “I’m not interested at all in what place they’re finishing right now. I’m interested in our team improving and getting better.
“That’s what we’re doing, so it doesn’t concern me in the invitationals we’ve done. It’s really about the team getting better.”
Mitchell Bowman, who swam the 200-yard IM, finished in eight place at 2:20.97.
Bowman admitted that there was nothing different with the team, except for the fact that they had two swimmers who didn’t compete at the meet.
“Golden West [men’s swim team] is really fast,” he said.
Concerning the women’s team, it earned a total of 845 points. Most of its points were earned from relay races.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, swimmers Valeria Barboza, Andrea Macapagal, Channon Owens, and Claudia Martinez, came in fifth place at 1:53.47.
While in the 400-yard medley race, swimmers Barboza, Owens, Martinez, and Anna Herrera, came in sixth place. They finished in 5:03.75.
According to Barboza, she said that the meet was a prelim meet where swimmers swam a race in the morning and if they qualified, they swam the event again in the afternoon.
She said, “everyone as a team did pretty good in the events. Coming in fourth place was a good thing, but I think we could’ve done a little bit better.”
Barboza admitted that she feels that they aren’t a bad team, but that they’re a really good team. She believes that they just need to put a little bit more effort into their swimming.
The two teams will compete in their first conference on Friday against Mt. San Antonio College.
