Los Angeles, CA- Three Cypress Swimmers, Ethan Umpornpuckdi, Nicole Maslog, and Marisol Narvaez competed in the CCCAA State Championships at East Los Angeles College this past weekend (5/5-5/7). Ethan Umpornpuckdi raised the 36th state championship banner in school history as he finished first place in the 1650 Free with a time of 16:22.10. Marisol Narzaez set a Cypress school record in the 400 IM with a time of 5:03.06.

The Cypress College Chargers Swimming & Diving Team concluded their 2022 season at the CCCAA Championship, May 5-7 at East Los Angeles College. The men's team was represented by Ethan Umporpuckdi, while Marisol Narvaez and Nicole Maslog represented the women.

Umpornpuckdi got stronger as the meet went along, starting with a 5^th place finish in the 500 Freestyle (4:40.64). On Day 2, he finished 3^rd in the 400 IM (4:08.59) but he would save his best performance for last, concluding his meet and season with a 1^st place finish in the 1650 Freestyle (16:22.10). It was a massive improvement of 50 seconds from his seed time to become Cypress' first individual event winner since Alejandra Gomez won 1 & 3-meter diving in 2017. Umpornpuckdi swam a patient race, slowly working his way through the field until he was 1^st at the 250 and then would extend his lead the rest of the race, finishing nearly 7 seconds ahead of 2^nd place finisher, Stash Perry of Cuesta College. His individual total of 50 points lead Cypress to a 22^nd place finish on the Men's side. Sierra College won the meet with 573 points.

Coach Driscoll on Umpornpuckdi's 1650: "I can not tell you how proud we are of the performance Ethan put in today. We knew it would take under a 16:30 to win the title and he was confident that if he stuck to his game plan he could get to that time. He showed some real moxie out there in the pool."

Maslog established a strong tone for the Chargers on Day 1 with a 7^th place finish in the 500 Freestyle (5:25.60), dropping over 5 seconds from her performance at OEC's. She would follow that swim with a 8^th place finish in the 200 Freestyle (2:04.47), using a big performance in prelims to seed her in the Championship final. On the final day, she would have her best performance, 5^th in the 1650 Freestyle (18:55.88) dropping over 30 seconds to move up from her 9^th place seeding.

Narvaez also started with a strong performance, finishing 12^th in the 400 IM (5:03.06). Between prelims and finals, Narvaez lowered her own record by an additional 10 seconds. She would finish 16th in the 200 Breast (2:43.50) on Day 3. The combined 43 points between Maslog and Narvaez led the Chargers to a 21^st place finish, in a tie with Fullerton and Ventura College. Orange Coast College won the CCCAA Championship with 469 points.

Coach Driscoll on the meet: "It is hard to perform at a high level at both the Conference and State meets. All three of our athletes were able to step up this weekend and do some big things. Nicole improved on her seeding in all her events, Marisol absolutely obliterated her own school record and Ethan capped it off with a state title. We ended the season on a high note and we are excited to keep it going into 2023."

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