By Robert Nilsen
RIVERSIDE, CA - The Cypress College Men's swim and dive team finished up their first Orange Empire Conference Invitational at Riverside College with a 3rd place finish out of 7 teams. The Chargers beat out conference rivals Orange Coast who finished third at last year's state championships, Saddleback, Fullerton and Santa Ana. The Chargers were led by sophomore record holder Mark Wyse who finished with a team high 40 points and three top eight finishes. Wyse finished 4th in the 50-yard freestyle (22.57) narrowly missing out on a 2nd place finish by 0.23 seconds. He also finished 6th in the 100-yard butterfly (56.63) and 7th in the 100-yard freestyle (49.81). Wyse is setting his sights on breaking the 41-year old 50-freestyle record this season. He narrowly missed the record last season by 0.01 seconds. Freshman Brian Vo finished one point behind Wyse with 39 points and three top eight finishes. Vo finished 5th in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:29.92), 6th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.23) and 7th in the 200-yard IM (2:08.33). Sophomore Matt Efseaff finished behind Vo with 31 points and two top eight finishes. Efseaff finished 5th in the 200-yard backstroke (2:12.28) and 8th in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.90). Sophomore Nathan Panter racked up 27 points while finishing 8th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.71) and freshman Brock Railey finished with 24 points while finishing 7th in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.39). The Chargers also had a good peformance in the relays as they finished 4th in both the 200-freestyle relay (Wyse, Vo, Railey, Panter: 1:30.05) and the 200-yard medley relay (Railey, Vo, Efseaff, Wyse: 1:44.52). Leading the way for the divers was freshman Ryan Napohuka who placed 2nd on the 1-meter (194.9 pts) and 3-meter (231.65) diving events.
The Lady Chargers swim and dive team finished up their first Orange Empire Conference Invitational at Riverside College with a 6th place finish. The Chargers were led by freshman Kayleen Bretz who demolished the 10-year old 1650-yard freestyle record. Bretz racked up 44 points while finishing 2nd in the 1650 free (18:50.67) as she beat the previous record of 19:04.51. Bretz is now setting her eyes on breaking the 500-yard freestyle record (5:24.30) set back in 1991. Bretz also finished 3rd in the 500-yard freestyle (5:31.26) and 8th in the 200-yard butterfly (2:49.94). Freshman Dasha Petrov had a strong performance as she finished with 25 points while finishing 7th in the 100-yard butterfly (1:09.63). Freshman diver Alejandra Gomez dominated the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events as she placed 1st on both boards. She scored 246.25 points on the 1-meter which shattered the 2012 record of 190.9 and she scored 261.50 points on the 3-meter which broke the 2012 record of 238.1 points.
The Chargers swim and dive team's next meet is the Cuesta Invitational in San Luis Obispo, March 10-11.
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