On the final day of the three-day CCCAA State Championships held at Orange Coast College, Golden West battled with the best in California and came out looking good. The Rustlers scored points in five of the six events contested on a day that felt a lot more like fall than the middle of spring.
Saturday's first final event was the 1650-yard freestyle. GWC came in with the top seed in Nolan Chomin who had recorded a 15:49 at the conference championships. Chomin's strength is his ability to hold onto a fast pace. That was evident as by the 500 mark, three swimmers had separated themselves from the field. Chomin took the group out in a 4:43 500 and right with him were Sierra's Troy Quintana, the winner of the 500 and Samuel Slezak from Mt. Sac who had finished second in the mile in last year's State meet. By the 1000, Nolan had a two second lead on Slezak with Quintana falling back. That lead almost disappeared during the next four laps and by the 1200, Slezak had moved to the lead. By the 1500 mark, the Mountie had increased his margin by almost two seconds when Chomin made his counterattack. With
just two laps to go, the difference between the top two was less than a second. However, in spite of a blistering 53.9 final 100, the Rustler ace finished second with a 15:36.73 effort. Slezak took the title with a 15:35.9 time. Nolan seemed pleased following the race, "No complaints, I dropped over twelve seconds and it was a great race."
Tommy Kelly next stepped up for the 200 backstroke. He had swam a tremendous time at conference posting a 1:51.48 which gave him the fastest time in the state going into the weekend. After the prelim swim, one that he acknowledged saving a bit for the final, he squeaked into the championship heat by the narrowest of margins claiming the eighth spot. An outside lane suited him. After taking the first 100 out in 53.7, he was part of a lead pack of five swimmers all grouped within four tenths of a second, coming back strong on the final four laps, Kelly improved on his prelim spot to finish fourth overall at 1:51.92. Considering that was only his fifth time he has done that event this year, the Concordia bound ace has much to look forward to in that event.
Kyle Sary was the next man up with the 100 freestyle. Being remarkably consistent, Sary had broken 46 seconds just twice before, both times at the conference championships. Never losing his poise, in the prelims he surged on the final 50 yards to secure fifth with a 45.85 result. He improved on that personal best with a 45.79 in the finals, good enough to hold onto fifth.
With nobody in the breaststroke race, the final individual swimmer for GWC was John Limon in the 200 fly. A sophomore who had just missed out on the State meet last year, Limon was the 16th and final qualifier in the fly event for this year's meet. Seeking to move up, he qualified 14th in a time slightly slower than his entry time. However, in the final, he made some key changes on his underwater strategy and was able to go out faster than in the morning. With a strong surge over the last 75 yards, he closed to go 2:01.41, a personal best, to grab four more points for GWC.
The final event was the 400-yard freestyle relay. Seeded fourth overall at 3:06.2, going into the race, the team knew they would have to perform to hold onto being even in the top six. Kelly led off with a sizzling 46.22 which was followed by Zach Bishop's smoking fast 46.34 which put Golden West in the top five. The third leg was handled well by Sary going 45.74 and now they had moved into the lead pack of four. The anchor leg was entrusted to sophomore Thomas Woodley who embraced the opportunity by going out in 21.6 on the opening 50 and finished strong. The final time was 3:04.46, good for fourth overall.
The final team scores were indicative of the conditions that spurred so many great performances from so many teams at the meet. Sierra College, last year's champion, successfully held off Orange Coast, last year's runner-up 633.5-523. Mt. Sac again finished third with 318 points. The next four teams, Riverside CC (248), Cuesta (236) and El Camino (234) all were so close to the Rustlers' final point total of 229.5.
Head Coach Tracy Maurer was upbeat after the meet had concluded. "We met every challenge presented to us in the pool this weekend. We surpassed goals that had been set at the start of the season. We came together as a team at the right time. Overall a very satisfying experience for all concerned."
