PCC Women’s Swim Achieves Best Finish at State Meet

From 2013 through the just completed 2015 season, the Pasadena City College women’s swim team has turned itself into one of the state’s top programs.

The Lancers achieved PCC’s best finish at the CCCAA Championships with a fifth place at the ’15 state meet held April 30-May 2 at East Los Angeles College.

It was the Lancers third consecutive top 10 finish after a sixth place in 2014 and an eighth place standing in ’13.

PCC’s season included winning its first South Coast Conference dual season title in 12 years at an undefeated 8-0 and a second place finish at the SCC Finals. The Lancers have five SCC Swimmers of the Year between ’13-15, two by sophomore Connie Peng who shared a tri-title this year with freshman teammate Ariahn Givens (and Mt. San Antonio’s Kayleigh Davidson).

At the state meet, the Lancers garnered a program-high of 11 top 8 medals and scored 243 points. On Saturday’s final day, Peng picked up her third individual medal of the meet by taking seventh place in the 200-yard backstroke, a new event to the women’s competition this year. Peng swam 2:12.66.

Givens had a big swim in the 100 freestyle, placing fifth with a time of 54.01 seconds.

In the last event the 400 freestyle relay, the Lancers stayed strong and placed fifth in a 3:40.65 mark behind the legs of Peng, sophomores Tiffany Wong and Courtney Fukushima, and the anchor Givens. The first-year phenom finished with a 53.89 split.

Wong placed second in the consolation final of the 200 butterfly (2:16.45, 10th overall) and freshman Liza Echeverria, who earned two medals in her other two swims, was third in the 200 breaststroke in 2:32.11 (11th overall). Both swims were also debut events for the state meet.

“We’ve been fortunate to have swimmers that understood how each individual’s performance was aiding us from a team aspect,” said PCC head coach Terry Stoddard. “The camaraderie of the swimmers helped us. We didn’t have the wow swims, the school record breakers of the 2013 and ’14 teams, but what we did have was consistency and depth in scoring points. We showed we belong in that upper echelon in the state.”

While SCC champion El Camino got the best of the Lancers two weeks at the conference finals, the Warriors placed ninth at the state meet with 160 points, well behind the Lancers. The South Coast’s strength, however, was seen with three in the top 12 as East Los Angeles finished 12th (134 points). No other SoCal conference had as many teams finish in that top 12.