Santa Barbara Women and Ventura Men Go Wire to Wire Winning Conference Championships
Ventura, CA — The Santa Barbara City College Women and the Ventura College Men went wire to wire at the 2015 Western State Conference Swimming Championships over the weekend to claim their respective conference championships. It’s the first conference title for the Vaqueros who are just in their second year of existence, while it’s the 26th overall for the Pirates.
Ventura, CA — The Santa Barbara City College Women and the Ventura College Men went wire to wire at the 2015 Western State Conference Swimming Championships over the weekend to claim their respective conference championships. It's the first conference title for the Vaqueros who are just in their second year of existence, while it's the 26th overall for the Pirates.
The final day of competition kicked off with the longest event of the weekend the 1650 free. Santa Barbara City College's Katherine Warren claimed victory in that event, posting a time of 18:12.81. On the men's side Cuesta College's Calvin Gonder just edged Ventura's Austin Hammond with a time 16:40.43.
After that it was time for the 200 Back, where the Cuesta women picked up a victory as Molly Casey posted a time of 2:15.66, to set the conference record. Ventura grabbed it's first win of the day in that event on the men's side as Marcus Rodarte blew away the competition with a time of 1:57.85. In the 100 Free, Cuesta went 1 & 2, with Racheal Gruetzmacher claiming the top spot with a time of 52.53 and teammate Haylee Mariucci going second with a time of 55.57. Ventura's Mitchell Ongstad meanwhile won yet another event, taking the 100 Free with a time of 45.71.
In the 200 Breast, Allan Hancock's Leanna Bramble set the conference record with a time of 2:26.19, while Santa Monica's Brandon Saliba, the 100 winner in the Breast, won the 200 as well with a time of 2:11.05. In the 200 Fly, another conference mark was set when Santa Barbara's Rachelle Visser won with a time of 2:11.49. Ventura's Christopher Sands won the men's event with a time of 2:00.19. The weekend would end in the 400 Free Relay. Cuesta won the women's event with a time of 3:41.22, while Ventura won with a time of 3:09.46.
The Santa Barbara Women would finish with 522 points, with Cuesta culling 412 points, and Ventura coming in third with 376 points. On the men's side, Ventura scored 664 points, Cuesta 520, and third place Bakersfield College 451.
