RUSTLERS OFF TO FAST START, SIT IN SECOND PLACE IN CONFERENCE FINALS

Mission Viejo, Calif. - The Golden West College Men's Swim team accorded itself well in the opening day of the Orange-Empire Conference Swimming and Dive Finals. Orange Coast College leads after the first five events with 248 points. GWC is in second with 208 points and Riverside CC is close behind with 198 points. Cypress (117) and Saddleback College (66) come in behind the top three.

 

The first event of the day saw the foursome of Boston Frost, James Smith, Joao Goncalves and Gavin Little drop just under four seconds in the 200 yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:26.37 and pick up third place overall.

 

The 500 freestyle was a strong event for Golden West as Ryan Novak, Jack Wright and Daigo Fujita went 1-3-4 and joined three other scoring teammates to put GWC in the team lead after the second event. Novak blasted the field going 4:34.39 to win the race that he came in as the top seed. Wright dropped 17 seconds from his entry time to finish in 4:45.64. Fujita pulled away the last 150 yards to capture fourth just off his prelim time of 4:50.63.

 

The 200 individual medley was also strong for Golden West. Jake M. Kiss won the event in a sizzling 1:53.42 which should be one of the top five times in the State after this weekend. Fellow Rustlers Bobby Wright, Jacob Stoddard and Little finished 6-7-8 overall. The team lead shrunk to six points (158-152) over OCC as they finished 2-3-4-5 in the championship finals.

 

Scoring less points in the 50 free and having no divers eventually allowed the Pirates to move into first overall two events later.

 

The Rustlers finished up the first day of finals with a dramatic fifteen second drop in the 400 Medley relay to nab second overall. M Kiss led off with a strong backstroke leg and the trio of Bobby Wright, Jack Wright and Novak finished strong with a 3:35.26 effort.

 

Head Coach Tracy Maurer was succinct in his commentary on the day. "We accomplished what we planned on doing today. The relays were impressive and they gave us a great chance to get them into the State meet. The individual swims were also noteworthy." Maurer was also grateful for the strength of the conference. "We are lucky to have great competition this weekend and look forward to the next two days."