Huntington Beach, Calif. - Golden West College Men's Swimming team finished second overall in the Orange-Empire Conference Swim Finals this past weekend. The meet, hosted by GWC, was eventually won by Orange Coast accumulating 949 points but the Rustlers had a very strong third day to move past Riverside City College, 683-606. Saddleback finished in fourth with 419 points well ahead of Cypress and Fullerton.
Despite strong performances on day one, GWC was eleven points behind the Tigers when the bubbles settled. There were no complaints however as there were highlights aplenty. The first final race was the 200 free relay. The quartet of Tommy Kelly, Keiden Sutanto, Eamon Hennessey, and Thomas Woodley produced a 1:25.95 to finish third and vault into the top ten in the state. The 500 freestyle was a strong event with freshman Nolan Chomin leading the way with a 4:39.53 to get the silver medal with a nine second improvement. Teammate Nico D'Angelo popped a 4:49.46 to claim sixth overall. Four swimmers combined for 16 points in the consolation final for the Rustlers. The 200 IM was especially fruitful as Srbolijub Filipovic grabbed the second spot (1:54.70) and Kelly closed strong with a 1:56.64 effort for third. Teammate Augi Macchi added important points with a sixth-place finish. The 50 free was light in the championship finals for GWC as Woodley dropped over a second to grab eighth overall. Again, four other Rustlers nabbed 12 points in the consolation finals. The last event of the day, the 400-medley relay, combined Hennessey, Filipovic, Sutanto and Kelly to gain second with a 3:31.14 spectacular swim, dropping nine seconds from their entry time. Despite the heroics, at the end of the first day, RCC had an 11-point lead over the host school, GWC.
The excitement continued into day two with two relays and five individual events, there were many opportunities to gain on the Tigers. The 200-medley relay was close, but the finish was OCC-RCC-GWC as the same quartet from the longer medley relay raced to a 1:36.02 time.
The 400 IM results pushed the Rustlers past RCC for the first time in the meet. Tommy Kelly finished second in a remarkable 4:11.07 followed by teammates D'Angelo (4:16.54) and Gen Fujita (4:25.42) to go 2-5-8 to go up by ten points. The 100 fly races added one more point to the Rustler lead as Sutanto picked up fifth with a 51.22 swim. Three swimmers in the consolation for getting 16 points offset RCC's two championship finalists. The 200 freestyle was a major boost for the Rustlers as they outscored their rivals 60-25. Nolan Chomin moved up from sixth to third (1:45.89) and Thomas Woodley (1:49.02) and Riccardo Vettore (1:50.22) dropped significant time to go 6-7 in the top final. Cooper Wiens upset the field in the consolation final and two others added ten points to boost the Rustlers in the standings. The 100-breaststroke saw Filipovic successfully defend his conference crown cruising to a 56.46 dominating win. Augi Macchi won the consol heat as RCC gained only three points on the Rustlers. The 100-backstroke, the final individual event of the day, featured Hennessy getting an eighth-place spot (54.33 prelims) and Justin Hemara winning another consolation final. RCC picked up 19 points to narrow the margin to 24 points. The 800 free relay saw the GWC team drop over thirty seconds as D'Angelo, Chomin, Sutanto and Filipovic averaged just under 1:47 to post a 7:07.42 mark and move up to the top ten in the state despite finishing third in the conference event. The day ends with the Rustlers in second overall, up by 22 over the Tigers.
Day three would be the difference. The longest event on the docket, the 1650 free, had six different Rustlers score points in the mile. Nolan Chomin won the event, taking it out fast in the first 500 yards and extending the lead from there in a 16:12.13 time dropping 27 seconds. Fujita and Vincent Labonte went 6-7 overall with the latter dropping 1:45 from his lifetime best. Two other teammates, Jarrett Kimbrough and Grady Cullin, both sophomores added 12 points to the Rustlers' total whose lead ballooned to 56. RCC had five swimmers score points in the 200 back to cancel that boost going 47-23. Rustler swimmers Hennessey and Hemara both dropped major seconds, but RCC got to within a reasonable 32 points. The 100 free had been a concern based on the seeds for GWC, but Woodley came through again with a 48.29 timing, but it was four swimmers in the consolation final that ultimately gave the Rustlers a seven point boost to put them up 39 with three events to go. Next is the 200 breast which ultimately sealed the deal as GWC outscored RCC 64-31. Leading the way was Filipovic who won easily in 2:06.12 followed by Kelly who sealed a state spot with a 2:13.21 mark and Labonte who grabbed a seventh-place finish after dropping fifteen seconds from his seed time. Adding in a Macchi-Kimbrough 1-2 finish in the consolations was useful as well. The 200 fly was a fitting conclusion to the individual events as D'Angelo (1:56.41), Sutanto (1:56.77) and John Limon (2:02.08) finished 2-3-6 overall. The final event, the 400 free relay composed of Hennessey, Filipovic, D'Angelo and Kelly went a comfortable 3:17.79 to finish third in the race.
Head Coach Tracy Maurer cited the depth and breadth of the Rustlers this year as being the key to the team coming in second in the conference race. "OCC is a powerful team but there is a lot of talent in this conference. Riverside posed a formidable challenge to us this year but the fact that we could spread our swimmers over all the events was vital for us. Too many great swims to single out any one of them but the teamsmanship was evident all three days. A great meet for us. Now it is on to the State championships."
Now the Rustlers await the seeds for that next meet which will take place at East Los Angeles College May 4-6.
