Men’s Swim Finishes 2nd at WSC Championships 

Bakersfield, CA (Swimming) -- Sophomore Weston Locatell swept all three of his events, and the Fighting Owl relay teams finished 2^nd in three different events, as the Citrus College men’s swim team finished in 2^nd place at the WSC Championships this past weekend at Bakersfield College. The 2^nd place finish is the best finish for the men’s team since they tied Cuesta College for 1^st place back in 1997.

As he’s done all year long, Locatell paced the Fighting Owls winning the 200 Individual Medley (1:55.62), 100 Fly (51.22), and 200 Fly. In his 100 Fly performance, Locatell barely edged out the second place finisher, touching the wall just four one-hundredths of a second faster than Ventura’s Daniel Colvin.

In the 200 Fly, Locatell smashed the previous conference record with a time of 1:52.07. Locatell’s time was so fast, that the second place finisher (Ventura’s Wade Federer) finished 10 seconds behind him.

While Locatell’s performance was outstanding, he didn’t get it all done by himself. Citrus got a number of other strong swims including an impressive weekend from sophomore Peter Smiley. Smiley finished 6^th in the 500 Free (4:59.66), 4^th in the 100 Back (55.73), and had his best showing of the weekend in the 200 Back, finishing in 3^rd place with a time of 2:03.88.

Also with a good weekend were freshman Jordan Rivas who finished 4^th in the 200 Free (1:46.59) and sophomore Tony Pearson who took 4^th in the 100 Breast (1:03.61) and 2^nd in the 200 Breast (2:18.16).

Citrus built on those strong individual performances by taking 3^rd in the 200 Free Relay (1:27.91), 2^nd in the 400 Free Relay (3:10.07), 2^nd in the 200 Medley Relay (1:39.41) and 2^nd in the 400 Medley Relay (3:37.76).

When all was said and done, Citrus had amassed 492 points edging out third place Cuesta College by a single point. Citrus’ point total was the best point total for the Fighting Owls in WSC history besting their 2007 mark of 474 points.

For the women, a trio of swimmers led the way as Brittany Orduno, Jenn Marshall, and Allison Gonzalez all posted top ten finishes in at least two events, helping Citrus to a 6^th place finish scoring a total of 304 points.

Orduno grabbed 8^th in the 100 IM (1:10.48) and 100 Butterfly(1:08.92), and 10^th in the 50 Butterfly (30.39), while Marshall took 10^th in the 50 Breast (38.14) and 8^th in the 100 Breast (1:21.88). Gonzalez wrapped things up by taking 8^th in the 50 Back (33.77) and 100 Backstroke (1:10.87) events.

While the season will come to a close for the women’s swim team, the men still have some swimmers competing in next weekends State Championship. Locatell will be competing in the 200 IM, 100 Butterfly, and 200 Butterfly, as will the 400 Yard Freestyle & Medley and 200 Yard Freestyle & Medley, Relay teams. The State Championships start on Thursday April 23 at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in Long Beach.

2009 WSC Swimming and Diving Championships Results