Huntington Beach, Calif. - Golden West College hosted the second Orange Empire Conference Invitational on Friday March 24. Each of the six teams got a chance to swim in the pool that will host the conference championship meet in just under a month from now.
The Rustlers responded well to swimming in home waters by coming close to breaking the 500-point barrier for team scores. Orange Coast continued swimming well but the Rustlers again finished in front of a talented Riverside CC team (490-436) after barely edging the Tigers by one point at the first OEC Invite.
The hard work put in by the GWC swimmers the last four weeks materialized with multiple top four finishers. As usual, the team was led by Srboljub Filipović who won both the 400-yard individual medley (4:16.79) and the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:14.89. Tommy Kelly showed off some of his versatility with a second place in the 200 back (2:03.90) and led off the 400 free relay with a blazing 48.8 split. Nolan Chomin had a productive day with a drop in all three events (third in the 500 free and fourth in the 200 back) but it was his 36 second drop in the 1650 free event that garnered the most attention. He had another epic battle with OCC's Brandon Samaniego as the Pirate touched out Chomin by less than a second.
Additionally, sophomore Nico D'Angelo moved to the top of the Rustler best times list in two events with his fourth-place finish in the 200 free (1:51.65) and the runner-up spot in the 200 fly with a 2:06.33 effort. Teammate Keiden Sutanto came in right behind D'Angelo in the longer fly race with a time of 2:08.53. John Limon's 100 fly (57.74) and Gen Fujita's 1650 (18:40.30) were notable fourth place finishes.
Finally, there were significant times drops in seasonal best times in the two relays offered at the meet. The quartet of Allen, Filipovic, Sutanto and Thomas Woodley dropped ten seconds and finished third overall. The 400-medley relay crew of Eamon Hennessey, Filipovic, Sutanto and Kelly dropped seven seconds and finished second in the last event of the meet.
Head Coach Tracy Maurer sees a competitive battle at the upcoming championships but sees the home pool advantage and excellent swimmers across the conference as the keys to seasonal best times and state berths for the Rustlers
