Swim teams mixed results in triple meet

A triple swim meet held at Long Beach City College on Friday saw the women’s swim team win both meets against Long Beach City College and Los Angeles Trade-Tech, while the men’s team found victory only against LA Trade-Tech.

The women’s team scored 62-60 against LBCC and 91-30 against LA Trade-Tech. The men’s team defeated LA Trade-Tech with a score of 104-15 but fell short against Long Beach with 92-38.

Freshmen Paige Watroba won in the 100-meter butterfly in 1:08.33, 100-meter backstroke in 1:09.95, and 50-meter butterfly in 30.35. Sophomore Cynthia Martinez followed Watroba in the 100 butterfly in 1:10.62.

The women’s team started the meet off with a close victory. The 200-meter medley relay clocked in at 2:03.52, only 1.73 seconds faster than Long Beach.

Sophomore Courtney Jensen gained three victories in the 1,000-meter freestyle in 11:52.21, 50-meter backstroke in 33.40, and 500-meter freestyle in 5:41.81.

Sophomore Mikela Velasquez lost the 100-meter freestyle by just .76 of a second, but won the 100-meter individual medley race in 1:04.73.

The women’s team won all the races against LA Trade-Tech, and lost only six against Long Beach.

“We stayed in the lead because of the medley relay, but we lost some [events] we didn’t expect to,” said Head Coach Terry Stoddard.

The men’s team lost in all but five competitions to Long Beach, but won them all against LA Trade-Tech.

Sophomore Cario Liu pulled together three wins for the Lancers in the 200-meter backstroke in 1:59.33, 200-meter breaststroke in 2:13.17, and 500-meter freestyle in 4:57.05.

Freshmen Stephen To won the 100-meter butterfly in 51.65 and the 200-meter butterfly in 1:54.67.

“Even though we didn’t come close to beating [Long Beach], it was a moral victory as [To] won three events and [Liu] won two,” said Stoddard. “I had [Liu] swim three events in a row that he was best at, and he beat two of his season’s best times.”

The women’s team overall South Coast Conference record now stands at 5-3, while the men’s team is at 3-4.

“I like our chances at the championship meet because I feel like we match well with the other teams. We’ll need the sophomore and next level athletes to win,” said Stoddard.

The swim team will host the 12th Pasadena Invitational on Friday and Saturday at noon.