VC Women 3rd, Men 5th at WSC Championships

The Ventura College women's swimming and diving team finished third in the 10-team Western State Conference Championships concluded Saturday at Cuesta College. The Pirate men, meanwhile, finished fifth of nine competing schools at the three-day meet. Grace Given and Shelby Jackson led the Pirates' efforts in the pool for the women while Collin Spargur and Mattia Braccini led the men. Braccini was named the conference's male diver of the year.

The Pirate men and women got off to a strong start on April 15 and 16 at the WSC Diving Championships in Torrance. That set the foundation for Ventura's meet Thursday, Friday and Saturday in San Luis Obispo.

Given led the Pirate women with a pair of silver medal swims. She was runner up in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke races and also finished fourth in the 50-yard freestyle. Jackson, meanwhile, earned a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly, a bronze medal in the 100-yard backstroke and touched fifth in the 200-yard back. 

Megan Findlay scored in three individual events, coming in sixth in the 500-yard free, seventh in the 100-yard fly and ninth in the 200-yard fly. Stephany Dijar scored with a seventh place finish in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breast stroke, and a 12th place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

Nicole Hoare touched 12th in the 1650-yard free, 13th in the 100-yard back and 16th in the 200-yard back while Natalia Rodriguez was 10th in the 200-yard individual medley and 10th in the 400-yard km. Lauren Pierce finished 11th in the 200-yard breast stroke.

The quartet of Given, Jackson, Dijar and Findlay also scored in four different relays, finishing fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay and fifth in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the 400-yard medley relay and the 200-yard medley relay. Hoare, Pierce, Analee Magana and Rodriguez were seventh in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Spargur earned points of the PIrate men in three individual events. He claimed bronze in the 100-yard freestyle while finishing fourth in the 50-yard free and the 100-yard backstroke. In addition to his diving accolades, Braccini finished 10th in the 200-yard freestyle.

Zane Hermann touched fifth in the 200-yard free, sixth in the 100-yard free and seventh in the 50-yard free. Meanwhile Brayden Lauritzen earned points in three events, finishing seventh in the 200-yard individual medley, eighth in the 100-yard breast stroke and 11th in the 200-yard breast stroke.

Michael Andrews came in ninth in the 200-yard backstroke while Sebastian Ayala was 11th in the 1650-yard free. George Bonilla touched in 14th place in the 400-yard IM while Janson Cunningham was 14th in the 50-yard free.

The quartet of Spargur, Lauritzen, Braccini and Hermann came in fifth in both the 200-yard and 400-yard medley relays. Meanwhile, Hermann, Cunningham, Braccini and Spargur finished fifth in the 400-yard freestyle relay and Cunningham, Ben Sweet, Andrews and Ayala were seventh in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

VC's women scored 433 points, behind Santa Barbara's 664 and Bakersfield's 518. Cuesta was fourth with 409 points and LA Valley was fifth with 364.

Cuesta claimed the men's title with 884 points, followed by Bakersfield (473), Hancock (447) and Santa Monica (425.5). Ventura finished with 351 points and LA Valley was sixth with 291.

The Pirates will now await the qualifying marks for the CCCAA State Championships to be held May 5-7 at East Los Angeles College.