On Friday, March 29, the Mt. SAC swim and diving teams hosted a meet against the Long Beach Vikings where the men’s team defended home court while the women’s team valiantly fell short.
The men’s team nearly doubled their opponents, 190-89, while the women’s team lost in a tightly contested competition, 149-131, marking their first loss on the season. This meet also marked the men’s swimming and diving team completing its 10th undefeated dual meet season in 11 years.
The dual meet started with the diving competition. Sophomore Brianna Solis was the only SAC diver for the women’s team to place on the podium finishing third with a score of 157.15 on the day. Two divers for SAC’s men’s team placed in the top three on the podium – freshman Dylan Lui finishing second with a cumulative score of 138.65 and freshman Aidan Gillooly placing third totaling 133.30 points.
Then began the swim portion starting with the women’s and men’s 200-meter medley relay. The races alternated between women’s and men’s throughout the competition.
The women’s race came down to a nail-biting finish between SAC and the Vikings. Mt. SAC’s team consisting of freshmen Paige Fast, Eden Kennedy, Elleanna Ramos and Genevieve Niko ultimately took the win with a time of 1:56.17.
For the men’s medley, SAC sophomores Eric Yeh and Markus Stegbuchner and freshmen Luke Pedroche and Ray Chun dominated with a time of 1:38.56 ahead of the Vikings.
SAC had an outstanding swim performance by sophomore Madison Dorsey in the women’s 1000-meter freestyle. Dorsey out-swam everyone with a time of 11:47.30. Dorsey throughout the race showed zero signs of slowing down and built a lap lead ahead of her opponents.
Sophomore Samuel Slezak from Mt. SAC also dominated in the men’s 1000-meter freestyle with a time of 9:53.10 coming in almost a whole 30 seconds in front of second place.
After the conclusion of the 1000-meter freestyles, the meet was shortly delayed due to technical issues with the touchpad in lane seven. The actual replacement of the equipment did not take long but the lane was left open during the next race in order to get everything working properly for the rest of the meet.
In a nail-biting finish, freshman Elleanna Ramos finished first in the women’s 200-meter fly stroke with a time of 2:15.15 which was only 0.25 seconds ahead of second-place Vikings sophomore Isabella Shead. SAC sophomore Emily Valasco finished third timing 2:47.83 nearly 32.68 seconds behind her teammate Ramos.
Freshman Paige Fast captured first in the 200-meter backstroke timing 2:15.83 nearly 17 seconds clear of second-place Vikings freshman Emily Molendyk and over 30 seconds ahead of her SAC teammate Emily Valasco who finished third in the event.
Of the 12 first-place finishes, noteworthy performances for SAC’s men’s team include sophomore Jason Matsuda’s sub-two minute time in the 200-meter fly stroke at 1:56.93 clearing second place by over 20 seconds, sophomore Kevin Poma just missed clearing a sub-five minute during the 500-meter freestyle posting a 5:01.61 and freshman Gavin Roberts’s 14-second lead finish in the 200-meter individual medley with a 2:03.45.
The Mt. SAC men’s team maintained a staggering point lead for most of the meet but the women’s team batted to the end in a tightly contested meet that ultimately came down to the last few races. Unfortunately, the women’s team could not out-swim the Vikings resulting in their 18-point loss.
The difference came down to overall poll finishes for the women’s team. Although they placed first overall in more events, 8-6, the Vikings finished the meet with more second and third-place finishes, 9-5 and 11-3 respectively.
Mathematically, if SAC had placed third in the eight events where they placed fourth or fifth, SAC would have tied with the Vikings, 139-139, or won by a narrow two points, 140-138.
Despite losing, the team is keeping their heads held high and is focusing on their strengths.
According to freshman Paulina Luna, the team always comes in with an open mind and positivity, but there are things that they can improve on in the future.
“I just think we can just work on getting ready on time. There were a few that weren’t ready, but that happens sometimes,” Luna said regarding what the team can work on to improve going forward in the season.
After the meet, assistant women’s swim coach Shane Dominico shared that he is still proud of the team because he understands that the players are tired and that the first meet is the harder part of the season.
“Today I felt like everyone came together and was supportive of each other, so it was good team morale, and that is super important,” Dominico said. “Even when you aren’t ahead in points you can still seek positivity.”
The next meet for Mt. SAC men’s and women’s teams will be on April 5, at Riverside College and will not be at home until April 18, for both men and women.
