RUSTLERS SHINE ON FIRST DAY OF CONFERENCE SWIM FINALS

Golden West College had strong performances in the opening five events of the Orange-Empire Conference Swimming Championships held at Orange Coast College. After the first of three days, the Rustlers are nestled into second place with 200 points. OCC leads with 292 and Riverside is third with 173. Saddleback has 75 for fourth and Fullerton sits in fifth.

The GWC foursome of Zachary Bishop, Kyle Sary, Joao Goncalves and Thomas Woodley were less than a second off the school record in the 200 free relay going 1:23.33 to nab third in a race that had three teams all within six tenths of a second.

Nolan Chomin led from start to finish in the 500 free blasting a 4:33.54 dropping nine seconds from his entry time. The Rustlers picked up valuable points with the 6-8 finish of Vincent Labonte, Riccardo Vettore and Bao Mai.

Tommy Kelly dropped nine seconds off his 200 Individual Medley finishing at 1:52.92 moving from being seeded fifth to finishing second overall. Jacob Stoddard and John Limon both swam well in the prelims to move up in the rankings and finished in the top eight overall.

Kyle Sary (Marina High graduate) led the Rustlers in the 50 free as he broke the magic 21 second barrier for the first time ever. He qualified first in the morning with a 20.89 time and lowered it to 20.80 garnering third place overall but most assuredly qualifying for the State meet in two weeks.

Finally, to finish the day off in good fashion, the 400 medley relay quartet of Goncalves, Kelly, Bishop and Sary dropped eleven seconds off their seasonal best to nab second in the event with a time of 3:32.55.