Monroe, Badaracco Shine at State Championships

Pirates Jaiden Monroe and Olivia Badaracco both had an outstanding weekend at the 3C2A State Championships in Santa Rosa. The pair each medalled in two individual races during the three-day event while each also earned team points in another. Additionally, they each swam legs on three men's or women's relay teams, respectively, that also scored for the Pirates in the championships. Badaracco highlighted her performance with two school records in the 100- and 200-yard  backstroke races.

Badaracco's highlight came on Friday as she won the bronze medal in the 100-yard backstroke.  Her time of 58.23 established a new VC standard, breaking the previous record of 58.34 set by Christina Robledo in 2013. Badaracco broke a program record while claiming third place in the 200-yard backstroke Saturday, posting a mark of 2:05.45, besting the the time of 2:11.51 set by Caitlyn Potter in 2021. She also finished 11th in the 50-yard freestyle.

The women's 200-yard freestyle relay team of Badaracco, Ava Carey, Sarah Glassman and Carissa Clay finished in 16th place Friday and the same quartet was 14th in Friday's 800-yard freestyle relay. The Pirate women closed out the meet with Stevie Sturges, Badaracco, Ami Cruz and Clay coming in 14th in the 200-yard medley relay Saturday.

Monroe began his individual run on Friday by finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 49.72. He claimed the silver medal in the 200-yard backstroke Saturday touching in 1:49.74. Monroe also placed fourth in the 100-yard butterfly Friday.

Nick Santander, Luigi Travi and Thomas Shea joined Monroe Thursday to place 13th in the 200-yard freestyle relay while Monroe, Santander, Michael Ramirez and Brayden Black placed eighth in the 800-yard freestyle relay on Friday. Monroe, Santander, Travi and Shea returned on Saturday to claim a ninth place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Additionally, Shea placed 13th in the 3m diving event Thursday and came back to finish 14th in the 1m event on Friday. 

The Pirate men came in 11th place overall, scoring 110 points, behind Ohlone at 134 and finishing just ahead of Las Positas with 108. Sierra, American River and Mt. San Antonio finished in the top spots in the team standings, all over 400 points. A total of 33 schools earned points over the three days.

Meanwhile, VC's women placed 20th overall out of 34 scoring teams with 56 points, behind DeAnza (65), West Valley (63) and Allan Hancock (57). Mt. San Antonio claimed the state championships followed by Santa Barbara and American River.