By Tadzio Garcia
Competing without several Huskies, the swimming and diving team came up short against Chaffey (62-216) and Mt. San Antonio (83-186) colleges last week while posting a season high 12 personal best times.
“We missed fast girls today. It’s frustrating because we could have scored alot more points. But we did swim the best we could and that is important,” said Beisi Li.
In diving competition, Melissa Marinero swam to her best result of the season placing fourth against Chaffey and first against Mt. SAC.
Marinero raised her individual meet total by 21.4 points while scoring 84.40 points, which was good enough for fourth place.
“The coaches train me harder each day cleaning up my dives, which helped me get better results. I’m excited that I gave points to the team,” said Marinero.
Several Huskies also swam to their fastest times of the season at the dual meet that was held at Mt. SAC on Friday, March 30.
“Fastest times are what they work, which provides a higher goal for each of them to beat. There times were in there today. Improving like this will give the team a positive attitude going into conference finals,” said Head Coach Erik Matheson.
Li won two races to the roar of the ELAC team posting her fastest times of the year in the 50-yard and 100 breaststroke events. Li swam 1:16.68 minutes in the 100 and 33.42 seconds in the 50.
Desiree Alexandre placed third against Mt. SAC in 41.18, also her fastest of the year in the 50 breast. Li also swam her personal best in the 50 butterfly, in 33.42 while taking second place against Mt. SAC and third against Chaffey.
Alexandra Gonzalez and Lyz Ruvalcaba tied for first place against Mt. SAC in the 50 backstroke in 33.98, which was a personal record for Ruvalcaba.
“We strive for consistency but today we dropped a lot of times. From here we only go up,” said Gonzalez.
Ruvalcaba knocked off 5 seconds off her previous fastest time in the 100 back while placing second, in 1:12.59, against both Chaffey and the Monarchs.
Ruvalcaba and Krysten Aguilar swam their fastest 500 freestyle races of the year. Ruvalcaba clocked in at 6:33.17 while Aguilar finished in 7:11.47.
Swimming her personal best in the 50 free, in 28.12, was Christina Burrola who came in third place against both Chaffey and Mt. SAC. Burrola also swam her fastest time in the 200 free, in 2:13.03, while taking second place against the Chaffey Panthers.
Also against Chaffey, Ashley Jauregui edged Ruth Bardales by 3.2 seconds for second place in the 1000 free. Jauregui shaved 14.69 seconds off her previous best.
Sandy Mendieta added points placing 3rd against Chaffey in the 100 fly, in 1:16.00. Suzette Merchain-Cota swam her fastest 100 fly in 1:27.05, knocking off 17.24 seconds off her previous best.
The ELAC 200-medley relay team took second place against Mt. SAC and third against Chaffey in 2:11.92. Swimming together for the first time due to Husky absences was Gonzalez, Li, Mendieta and Burrola.
The Huskies compete in the South Coast Conference Diving Championships at El Camino College April 13 and 14, and in the SCC Swimming Championships April 19 and 21.
Huskies that place within the top 24 statewide times in each event will advance to the state championships to be held at East Los Angeles College April 26 – 28.
Huskies improve in two losses
By Jorge Lopez
The East Los Angeles College swimming and diving team suffered grueling losses March 23 to the host Pasadena City College Lancers and the powerful Cerritos College Falcons in a double duel meet on Friday, March 23.
The tough defeats brings the Huskies non-conference record to 4-3. The Huskies lost to Pasadena, 121-150, and Cerritos, 124-151. The Huskies did improve against thest teams as they previously lost to PCC by 70 points and by 63 points to Cerritos.
Strong efforts made by the huskies began in the 200-yard medley relay, as the Husky A-team composed of Alexandra Gonzalez, Beisi Li, Martha Rivas and Veronica Pelayo placed third. They were also able to swim their fastest time of the season in this event.
In the 200 freestyle, Christina Burrola managed to earn a second place finish; Burrola was also responsible for third place finishes in the 500 and 100 freestyle, adding points to the Husky’s total.
Li placed second in the 100 breaststroke, which was shortly followed by a third place performance in the 50 breast. Li was also able to swim the fastest time in the 100 individual medley, earning another top spot for the Huskies.
Rivas contributed with a third place finish in the 100 butterfly, while Edith Rivas swam into the third spot in the 100 backstroke events.
The Rivas sisters dominated in the 50 fly event with Martha Rivas coming in second and Edith Rivas placing a close third, helping the Huskies earn vital points and stay in contention.
An outstanding performance by the lone Husky diver Melissa Marinero, added points for ELAC after she was disqualified in last weeks meet for not completing all of her dives.
“I felt like improved a lot from my previous competition and overall I felt really confident.” said Marinero. Marinero also said that at first a lot of her fears were keeping her from performing her best, but now she is trying to get over it, get out there and just do it.
The Husky swimming team fought to the last event, finishing on a strong note when the Husky 400 free relay A-team composed of Burrola, Genesis Hermosillo, Edith Rivas and Pelayo finished in first place, tapping the wall in 4:12.27 minutes, their fastest time of the season.
“Both Pasadena and Cerritos are really good contestants to go up against, so with the performance that we had, I’m happy with it.” said Coach Erik Matheson.
Other highlights for the Huskies are time improvements by Ashley Jauregui in the 1000 free, who bettered her time by eight seconds.
Alexandra Gonzalez improved to her top mark of the year in the 50 back, with a time of 33.62 seconds.
Desiree Alejandre clocked in at 1:25.48 in the 100 IM posting her best time of the season.Suzette Merchain-Cota was another swimmer able to improve on her times, “The confidence is building,” said Merchain-Cota.
