Posted: Apr 18, 2025
Mission Viejo, Calif. - On the second day of the Orange-Empire Conference Swim Finals, Golden West remained focused on the task at hand putting up seasonal bests throughout the day both in the prelims and finals sessions. Orange Coast College still maintained the overall lead in the men's competition with 574 points. The Rustlers are still within striking distance with 501 points holding second place ahead of Riverside CC with 469 points. Cypress has 268 points and Saddleback is in fifth with 164.
The 200 Medley relay was the first event of the afternoon session and Golden West droppedfive seconds to finish third overall with a time of 1:39.02. The relay contingent was made up of
Bobby Wright, Gavin Little, Ryan Novak and Joao Goncalves.
Bobby Wright, Gavin Little, Ryan Novak and Joao Goncalves.
The most potent event for the Rustlers this entire meet was the 400 individual medley. Golden West placed five of their swimmers in the eight man championship final. Jake M. Kiss won his second event of the meet convincingly with a time of 4:02.60. His teammates, Ryan Novak,
fourth (4:11.58), Daigo Fujita fifth (4:19.79), Jacob Stoddard sixth (4:24.29) and Cade Winston eighth (4:33.86) all took off impressive amounts of time from their entered marks. The 73 points earned in this sole event were enough to propel the Rustlers into the team lead 313-310 over OCC.
The next big scoring event for GWC was the 200 freestyle. Jack Wright dropped eight seconds in the prelims to qualify first overall. His time of 1:44.89 was improved just a bit in the finals as he finished second overall. Joao Goncalves finished third for the Rustlers (1:48.20)
Three swimmers scored in the championship final of the 100 backstroke for Golden West.Goncalves added a second place finish with a 53.88 effort. Bobby Wright grabbed third with a 54.45 and teammate James Smith dropped even more in the finals (seven seconds for the day) to a 55.54 time for fifth place.
The last event of Day 2, the 800 freestyle relay, turned out to be the most exciting of the day as GWC came in seeded third with a 7:17 mark behind RCC's 7:11 and OCC's 7:13. The race started off with Ryan Novak grabbing the lead for GWC. His four yard lead was mostly
maintained by Jake M. Kiss and when he finished, Daigo Fugita swam well but saw the overall lead shrink to a half-body length lead halfway through his leg. However, that lead stretched out again by the time anchor leg, Jack Wright, dove in. OCC made a strong move immediately and took over the lead within the first 75 yards. Wright maintained his pace and began his counterattack and by the time there was just 50 yards to go, the race was dead even with RCC making up the gap on both teams. Wright surged the last 35 yards and held off a hard charging RCC as Golden West won the event with a time of 6:57.36, a time improvement of 17 seconds. RCC finished just a half second behind and all three teams got under the seven minute mark.
maintained by Jake M. Kiss and when he finished, Daigo Fugita swam well but saw the overall lead shrink to a half-body length lead halfway through his leg. However, that lead stretched out again by the time anchor leg, Jack Wright, dove in. OCC made a strong move immediately and took over the lead within the first 75 yards. Wright maintained his pace and began his counterattack and by the time there was just 50 yards to go, the race was dead even with RCC making up the gap on both teams. Wright surged the last 35 yards and held off a hard charging RCC as Golden West won the event with a time of 6:57.36, a time improvement of 17 seconds. RCC finished just a half second behind and all three teams got under the seven minute mark.
When asked for comment on the day, Head Coach Tracy Maurer was pleased with his team's efforts on Friday. "The men are swimming really well. The veterans, the rookies, everyone has made their mark the past few days. We are eagerly awaiting what will happen tomorrow."
The final day has one relay and seven individual events to be contested. Action continues at Saddleback College with prelims starting at 9:30 am and finals commencing at 3:00 pm.
The final day has one relay and seven individual events to be contested. Action continues at Saddleback College with prelims starting at 9:30 am and finals commencing at 3:00 pm.
