Pirate Swim & Dive Teams Compete at Mt. SAC Invitational

The VC men's and women's swimming and diving teams competed at the three-day Mt. San Antonio Invitational Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Walnut. The Pirate men finished fourth out of 15 competing teams while the Ventura women were eighth of 19 teams. Grace Given earned the Pirates' lone gold medal of the meet and earned points in two more individual events while Shelby Jackson placed in six events. Meanwhile, Mattia Braccini and Zane Hermann placed in four events for VC.

The Pirate men scored 303 points over the three days to place fourth. Cuesta ran away with the title with 943 points and Mt. SAC was second with 641. Sequoias was third with 425 followed by VC, El Camino (286.5) and Bakersfield (283).

Braccini scored in four individual events to lead the VC men, coming in fourth in the 1m diving and fifth in the 3m diving. He also finished ninth in the 100-yard individual medley and 13th in the 50-yard butterfly. Hermann also scored in four races, touching in sixth in the 500-yard freestyle, eighth in the 200-yard free, 10th in the 100-yard free and 13th in the 50-yard free.

Meanwhile Collin Spargur earned scores in three events, coming in fourth in the 100-yard freestyle, fifth in the 50-yard free and 13th in the 200-yard free. Michael Andrews matched Spargur with points in three competitions, finishing fourth in the 3m diving, seventh in the 1m diving and 14th in the 200-yard backstroke.

Janson Cunningham was fifth in the 1m diving and sixth in the 3m diving events and Brayden Lauritzen finished sixth in the 50-yard breast stroke and ninth in the 100-yard breast stroke. Sebastian Ayala scored with a 15th place finish in the 400-yard individual medley while Nathan Willeford followed in 16th.

All four VC men's relay teams finished in the top eight in the meet. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Hermann, Braccini, Cunningham and Spargur finished fifth while the same group finished fifth in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The quartet of Spargur, Lauritzen, Braccini and Hermann was sixth in the 200-yard medley relay and the same team was eighth in the 200-yard medley relay. 

VC's women finished in the top half of the competing teams, placing eighth of 19. The Pirates totaled 245 points, just one behind Long Beach and 25 shy of Bakersfield. Sierra won the meet with 719.5 points followed by Mt. SAC (492) and Santa Barbara (357).

Given earned the team's lone gold medal of the weekend, finishing first in the 50-yard backstroke in 30.13. She also was sixth in the 100-yard IM and ninth in the 50-yard free.

Jackson was solid in multiple disciplines, earning points in six individual events. She won silver in the 100-yard butterfly and finished fourth in the 100-yard backstroke. She touched in fifth place in the 50-yard butterfly and 50-yard backstroke while coming in seventh and 10th, respectively in the 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard freestyle, respectively.

Megan Findlay also earned scores in two events, coming in 10th in the 50-yard fly and 15th in the 100-yard fly.

Allison Harris claimed silver in the 3m diving event and finished with bronze in the 1m while Lauren Pierce claimed third and fourth in the same events, respectively. Analee Magana came in seventh in the 1m diving.

Two relays also earned points for the Pirates. Jackson, Given, Findlay and Natalia Rodriguez touched in eighth in the 200-yard medley relay while Jackson, Pierce, Findlay and Rodriguez came in ninth in the 400-yard medley relay.

Ventura next travels to the Cuesta Invite March 10 and 11 in San Luis Obispo.