COSTA MESA, CA – The Cypress College swim and dive team traveled to Costa Mesa for the OEC Championships at Orange Coast. The two-day meet started Thursday morning with prelim events and ended Friday night with the finals. The Chargers scored 474 points and took 5th place as a team, 4th place in women's events, and 4th place in men's events.
PRELIMS
In the prelims on Thursday, Ethan Umpornpuckdi placed 1st in both the 200-yard free (1:47.57) and the 500-yard free (4:49.06), earning him top spots in the finals. Brandon Rubio qualified for four races in the finals and got in the top 16 of the 200-yard individual medley (2:12.53), 100-yard back (1:01.27), 500-yard free (5:28.48), and 100-yard fly (56.71). Chargers Drake Wallace, Zachary Sofai, Joshua Boynton, Nathan Ciolek, and Carlos Cazares all qualified for two races in the finals. Drake Wallace placed in the top 16 of the 200-yard free (2:00.21) and 500-yard free (5:30.20). Zachary Sofai swam a 21.61 in the 50-yard free and placed 1st in the event. He also placed 2nd in the 100-yard free with a time of 48.37. Joshua Boynton qualified in the 50-yard free (22.84) and 100-yard free (48.83). Nathan Ciolek placed 5th in the 100-yard fly (57.79) and got in the top 16 of the 500-free (5:28.48). Carlos Cazares placed in the top 16 of the 200-yard individual medley (2:16.19) and got 9th in the 100-breast with a time of 1:06.28.
FINALS
The men's swim and dive team competed in the OEC Championships where they combined for 256 team points to take 4th place out of five teams. Brandon Rubio (32 points), Drake Wallace (14 points), and Carlos Cazares (8 points) swam in three events each in the finals. Zachary Sofai (40 points), Ethan Umpornpuckdi (40 points), Joshua Boynton (30 points), and Nathan Ciolek (26 points) participated in two events each on Friday.
In the individual events on Friday, Ethan Umpornpuckdi got 1st place in the 200-yard (1:45.11) and 500-yard (4:41.20) freestyle, breaking his own pool record set at prelims the day before. Zachary Sofai finished 1st in the 50-yard (21.02) and 100-yard (47.00) freestyle, breaking the pool record. Joshua Boynton placed 4th in the 50-yard (22.36) and 100-yard (48.67) freestyle events. Nathan Ciolek placed 4th in the 100-yard butterfly (55.80). In the relay events, Ethan Umpornpuckdi, Joshua Boynton, Nathan Ciolek, and Zachary Sofai got on the podium after placing 2nd in the 200-yard free relay with a time of 1:38.20. That same team also placed 3rd in the 400-yard free relay with a time of 3:16.09.
The full results from the Orange Empire Conference Championship Meet can be found here.
Friday's Championship meet was the final event for Head Swim Coach, Larry Beidler, after leading the Cypress Men's and Women's Swim & Dive program for over 30 years. He has been really impressed with the team's progress this season and is proud of both teams' ability to PR in many of their events. He will be greatly missed and will always be a member of the Chargers family, we wish him well on his way to retirement.
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