Pasadena City College Women’s Swim Capture 13 of 15 Events, Streak At 18 South Coast Conference Meets

The Pasadena City College women’s swim team continued to show its depth and versatility Friday when the Lancers won 13 of a possible 15 events and extended their South Coast Conference dual meet winning streak to 18 dating back to 2014. PCC downed Cerritos, 156-121, and defeated Rio Hondo, 171-88, in a home double dual at the Aquatic Center.

The Lancers (6-0 in conference duals this year) are led by sophomore Ariahn Givens, a freestyle specialist last year who has shown to be a force in a variety of events this year. She won the 200-yard butterfly (2:30.39), the 200 backstroke (2;24.56), and the 200 individual medley (2:19.92).

Another sophomore stalwart is Liza Echeverria, who also captured three event wins in the 100 backstroke (1:05.98), the 200 breaststroke (1:05.98), and the 100 butterfly (1:03.03). Other PCC winners were sophomore Phoebe Lee, the 200 freestyle in 2:09.89, freshman Nancy Chen, the 100 breaststroke in 1:17.15, freshman Anais Hacobian, the 50 freestyle in 25.52, sophomore Sharon Perez, the 100 freestyle in 58.89 (defeating Lee’s 59.20), and Deborah McCandliss, the 500 freestyle in 6:03.43.

It was the first time this year that PCC had as many as seven different swimmers winning at least one event.

Cerritos won the 1-meter diving (neither PCC or Rio Hondo has divers) and scored the only non-PCC swim victory in the 1,000 freestyle by Andria Melendez.

PCC head coach Terry Stoddard also liked that the team won both relay events, the meet-opening 200 medley relay by Perez, Chen, Hacobian and Givens (2:02.01) and the 400 freestyle relay by Hacobian, Echeverria, McCandliss, and Lee (3:58.59).

“It’s great to see how other swimmers are stepping up, not just our top two,” he said. “We have some depth and ladies who can step into different events to benefit the team. We have flexibility and that’s important as we have our biggest test against Mt. San Antonio next week.”

The Lancers will try to go undefeated in the dual season for the second straight year as they host Mt. SAC and LA Trade Tech on Friday, April 1 at PCC. The double dual begins at 12:30 p.m.

LEE WINS 3 EVENTS, PCC MEN SPLITS V. RIO HONDO, CERRITOS

Phillip Lee scored victories in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.77), the 100 butterfly (54.36), and 200 IM (2:10.12) as the Lancers men’s team beat Rio Hondo, 132-111, and lost to Cerritos, 149-125.

Other PCC event winners were David Jimenez in the 100 backstroke (56.12) and 200 backstroke (2:04.68), Leo Nuntapramote in the 200 breaststroke (2:24.97), and Zachary Loomer in the 1,000 freestyle (11:29.62). The 200 medley relay squad also won behind Jimenez, Nuntapramote, Lee, and Loomer in 1:43.83.

“We gave it our best shot,” Stoddard said, “Now we’ve won three of our last four meets, so that’s encouraging. Zachary swam his event for the first time and did great. Phillip held on strong to get his third win in the 100 fly.”

Lee edged out Cerritos’ Jesus Rojas in the closest race of the day by just .02 of a second.