Swim teams sweep, split in SCC meet

A dual swim meet was held at Cerritos College on Friday with Los Angeles Trade Tech College, PCC, and Cerritos College. It was a bittersweet meet when the men’s swim team swept the competition, but the women’s swim team that didn’t do so well.The men’s team scored, 142 points against Cerritos’ 117, and 176 points against LA Trade Tech with a score of 70 points. The women’s swim team lost to Cerritos 160-110 and defeated LA Trade Tech, 170-0.

“We won a couple of races we didn’t think we would win and lost a couple we didn’t think we would,” said Head Coach Terry Stoddard. “The guys are stepping up and I’m very happy with the team.”

Sophomore Baldwin Ngai defeated his competition, P.J. Gabayeron from Cerritos, in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:08.33. His personal best time was in the 200-yard individual medley with the final time 2:04.71.

“I felt amazing. I always lost to P.J. and to defeat him at his home pool was triumphal,” said Ngai.

Sophomores Sharif Alaoui and Andrew Genova contributed a majority of the points scored. Genova finished first in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:06.12, 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:38.46, and 200-yard butterfly with a final time 2:28.05. Alaoui finished first in the 200-yard freestyle in 10:38.4, 100-yard freestyle in 48.73, and the 100-yard butterfly with the final time 54.95.

“The toughest part of the competition was swimming against my own teammate, Tabrek Seyssel. He was always right behind me in second place,” said Alaoui.

“It felt good to win a couple of events because I haven’t won in a while,” said Genova.

Despite some victories for the women’s swim team, it had a hard time due to missing swimmers.

Freshman Courtney Jensen shined through the meet with first place in the 500-freestyle in 5:49.46 and 1,000-freestyle with final time 12:06.26. Freshman Julia Warden placed first in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:02.58 and 100-yard backstroke with the final time 1:05.88.

“It was a tough race. I felt like I did fairly well but it wasn’t my fastest time,” said Jensen.

Freshman Mikela Velasquez swept the 100-yard freestyle in 57.71 and the 100-yard individual medley with final time 1:04.58. Sophomore Brianna Estrada won the 50-yard butterfly with a final time 30.07.

In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Estrada, Jensen, Velasquez and Warden, dominated the event with the final time of 4:06. The men’s team came in second in the 400-yard freestyle relay with the final time 3:36.74, losing to Cerritos by 7 seconds.

“It was really self-satisfying to win [the 400-yard freestyle relay]. Cerritos was a tough school to swim against, but we have strong swimmers who tried our best,” said Jensen.

PCC’s swim team will compete against Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Friday at 2:30 p.m. in an attempt to boost its 2-3 overall record.