The Golden West College Men's Swim Team has had a consistent season so far improving significantly at each of the four competitions they have attended this spring. The latest was the Riverside CC March Invitational which was conducted over two days. There were plenty of faster times and great racing which contributed to GWC finishing third overall with 692 points. Orange Coast College and Riverside City College were very strong with 999.5 points and 812 points respectively. Ventura College amassed 496 points and El Camino CC totaled 298 to complete the top five overall.

 

Among the top four performances in each race for Golden West on Friday included two third place results with Jake M. Kiss in the 200 IM (1:59.27) and the 500 free (4:55.25). Taylor Juarez sped to a third place finish also in the 200 butterfly going 2:01.08. Finally also coming in third was the quartet of Daigo Fujita, Ryan Novak, M Kiss and Jack Wright who dropped three seconds on the 800 Free relay going 7:17.23.

 

Saturday had more events on the docket than Friday and there were more solid results for GWC. The Rustlers finished third in the 200 Medley relay as Novak, M. Kiss, Juarez and Boston Frost had a 1:45.42 effort. Ryan Novak finished second in the grueling 400 IM posting 4:19.20. Jake M Kiss won a tight battle for second place in the mile as he edged OCC's Gavin McNeal by twelve one hundredths of a second finishing with a time of 17:00.03. Daigo Fujita grabbed third place in the 200 backstroke, popping a 2:06.44 time. Finally the foursome of Fujita, Novak, Jacob Stoddard and Bao Mai grabbed fourth in the 400 Free relay with a 3:24.59 finish and in the final event of the day, the 400 Medley relay crew of Novak, M Kiss, Juarez and Stoddard completed the race in a strong time 3:49.79.

 

Head Coach Tracy Maurer was upbeat after the meet. "We swam great both days. Our guys have worked hard in all aspects of their racing and it is being borne out in our results. OCC and Riverside are stacked with many great swimmers but I was pleased with the way we raced. We are going to be a factor in the team results by the end of the season."