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Ending with yet another victory, sophomore Lancer swimmer Tai Nuntapramote brought a strong close to the season, as he became the state champion in the 200-yard butterfly at the CCCAA Championships held at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach on Saturday. Nuntapramote won the title with a time of 1 minute, 51.22 seconds, one of his best times of the season.

He almost won the 100 butterfly as well but lost by only .44 of a second.

“PCC has another state champion,” PCC Head Coach Terry Stoddard said. “Tai Nuntapramote won the 200 butterfly and he did it in excellent fashion. He stayed right with the swimmers for the first 150 and then out swam them by a by length on the last for an excellent victory.

“It was worth the wait because it was the very last individual event at the meet after three days of waiting,” Stoddard said. “Finally in the last event Tai was able to become our next state champion.”

Many of the team members battled illness throughout the season and championships but it did not prevent swimmers like Nuntapramote from winning.

“I’m really proud of him and actually the rest of the men on the team because [Nuntapramote] is sick. He has been sick for three weeks,” said Stoddard. “He was coughing behind the blocks but he was still able to set that aside and have a performance good enough to win.”

Although Nuntapramote was the only member of the team to become a state champion, PCC received 14th place overall, with other swimmers contributing as well.

“[The other team members] did the very best they could. They really feel good about having left their very best performance in every race,” Stoddard said.

Alan Clemente, one of the team’s captains, also did well in his 100 and 200 breaststroke, Stoddard said. He received fourteenth place in the 100-breaststroke with a time of 1:01.25 seconds.

“Our focus for Alan and Tai were to peak at the state championships and they did,” Stoddard said. “My number one goal, for the men’s program, was to get our relays qualified and they did.”

Tabrek Seyssel and Nick Perezsandi, two of the other strong members of the team, were not able to qualify for individual events, which was a disappointment, Stoddard said.

He does, however, have high hopes for Seyssel next season. “I’m really looking forward to him being our leadership. He now has the experience at the state championships to lead our team next year,” he said.

Though the women’s side had a good overall season, none were able to qualify for state.

“We didn’t have any women qualify for state which was a disappointment. We had all six of our women that had a chance just miss qualifying and our relays just missed qualifying,” he said. “We are gonna have to go back to work and work a little harder next year.

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