Corsairs make a splash with strong showing at WSC Meet No. 3
Santa Monica College Corsairs hosted the Western State Conference No. 3 Swimming & Diving Meet on Friday, March 27, and competed against visiting Ventura College Pirates, Los Angeles Valley College Monarchs, College of the Canyon Cougars, and the Citrus College Owls.
The women Corsairs finished once in first place, four times in second and three times in third, with 99 points scored from 20 entries with an average performance of 315.9.
The men’s team scored 119 points from 30 entries with an average performance of 310.6, earning three first-place, two second-place and five third-place finishes. The women and men Corsairs ranked third overall.
The event kicked off at 10 a.m. with the diving competition, limited to the 1-meter diving board only, which earned the women Corsairs their first top finishes. Karla Perez placed first, Jodi Globus second and Cindy Canseco fifth. Corsair Christian Ventura also placed fifth, earning the first four points for the men’s team that day.
In the absence of SMC diving head coach Ryan King, swimming head coach Brian Eskridge said, ‘‘We got five divers, which is nice. Nice score, a lot of points. There are not a lot of divers at this level. So having divers gets you a lot of points.”
Perez’s parents, Arelis Blanco and Juan Perez, and her younger sister, Jimona Perez, cheered in the stands. Her father recorded her dives and they immediately analyzed the videos after to see how she could improve on her next round. Jimona Perez said that her sister started diving two years ago and was previously a gymnast. Before diving, Karla competed in the 2018 Youth Olympics, where she represented the nation of Guatemala and won a bronze medal.
“She’s very good. She’s going to compete to win the State Championship this year,” said Eskridge. “She set our school record on both the three-meter and the one-meter already.”
After the diving competition ended, the attention of the spectators switched to the relays and individual races in the pool.
In the men’s individual events, Ronan Suarez won the first gold in the 1650 long-distance freestyle.
Corsairs swept the 200 breaststroke event with Riley Taizo Amis winning gold, followed by Zinadin Rosales earning silver with a personal best and Anton Olsson taking bronze. Nazaret Argueta placed fourth and Gabriel Munoz seventh.
Rosales also won bronze in the 200 individual medley, and Munoz, competing for the first time in the 400 IM event, placed third as well. Daine Lira, another competitor in the 1650 freestyle, also placed third.
In the relay events, both men’s 400 medley swim teams placed at the top. The first team of Suarez, Amis, Rohan Lee and Rosales won gold, while the second team of Casey Stockton, Argueta, Lira and Ricardo Parseghian earned bronze.
In the 400 freestyle relay, the team of Amis, Olsson, Rosales and Lee won silver, and the team of Olsson, Suarez, Lira and Argueta placed third in the 800 freestyle relay.
Stockton raced twice for a personal best in the 200 backstroke, placing sixth and in the 100 freestyle, finishing ninth. Rigo Juarez Pastrana also improved his personal best.
Amis, a biology major, said, “For the conference in about three weeks, I think I am feeling really good… as a team, I think we are in a good spot to maybe get a couple of teams, a couple of relays in conference and states.”
In the women's individual events, Isabella “Izzy” Montgomery raced twice for silver in the 200 backstroke and 200 butterfly. Montgomery missed gold by 0.27 seconds behind Abigail Chatalyan from Los Angeles Valley.
Ashley Gonzales placed third in the 200 breaststroke and reached a personal best.
In the women’s 400 medley relay, the team of Anastasia Rho, Gonzalez, Montgomery and Isabella Garcia won silver. The second team of Daniela Prado Cota, Leslie Alvarado, Liette Espinoza and Juniper Erin Kim placed fourth.
Bronze was earned in both the 400 freestyle relay by Espinoza, Ornella Dubuche, Gonzalez, and Cota, and in the 800 freestyle relay by Montgomery, Garcia, Dubuche and Rho.
Corsairs Alvarado, Kim, Garcia and Rho all recorded personal bests in various events. Rho said she experienced some back issues and swam through the pain.
Montgomery, a sophomore and a political science major said, “My goal is to get first place in all my events. Probably gonna swim the 100 fly, 200 fly, and maybe the 100 IM, or the 200 back. For the 200 fly, I'm definitely aiming for a 2:15 time as my time, and then the 100 fly, I want to get under a minute.”
Having the meet at SMC encouraged families and friends to attend. Stockton’s mother, Katie Sweeney, refers to herself as a “groupie” who also travels to see her son and his teammates compete.
Rho, a nursing major, said “I think the team spirit is good. I think today was fun, having people’s family and friends here. I think everyone did really well and we were cheering each other on. The divers did amazing. As usual, yeah!”
Eskridge explained that there are 10 teams in the Western State Conference and that every SMC athlete will participate in the conference meet, which determines the conference champion as well ase who qualifies to compete for the state championship in mid-April. SMC hosted the WSC last year, and this year it rotates to Los Angeles Valley College.
Eskridge considers the Meet’s race training. “It doesn’t really matter who wins these meets. It’s all about the conference and state championships… you want to put up good times. A lot of it is race training. They’re swimming a lot in practice and then going straight to a meet and learning to swim tired. It’s been good,” he said.
When asked whom to look out for, Eskridge said, “On the boys’ side, Riley Amis. He’s probably gonna qualify for state and Rohan Lee. He was a state qualifier last year. And then our relays, for the boys, they have a good shot at making state, too. On the girls’ side, Izzy Montgomery, she’s a returner. She was a state qualifier last year and conference champ in the 200m butterfly.”
Lee had not swum in a few weeks prior to the meet due to a shoulder injury but did participate in a few events.
The swimming and diving Corsairs will next travel to Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa to compete in the OCC Invite on Friday, April 3, and Saturday, April 4.