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 5th place in men's events.
PRELIMS
In the prelims on Thursday, Cheyanne Graham qualified for three events in the finals in the 200-yard free (2:27.65), 50-yard free (30.43), 100-yard free (1:07.88). Chargers Marielena McDermott, Hannah Perez, Celinda Robles, Marisol Narvaez, Hanah Salazar, and Isabella Garcia all qualified for two races in the finals. Marielena McDermott placed in the top 16 of the 100-yard free (1:13.52) and 100-yard breast (1:36.28). Hannah Perez qualified for the finals in the 500-free (7:15.35) and 100-yard fly (1:24.91). Celinda Robles placed in the top 16 of the 100-yard back (1:15.77) and 6th in the 100-yard fly (1:16.99). Marisol Narvaez placed 2nd and 4th in the 100-yard breast and 200-yard individual medley with times of 1:12.69 and 2:27.11. Hanah Salazar qualified with the 100-yard fly (1:19.08) and 100-yard breast (1:27.48). Isabella Garcia placed in the top 16 of the 50-yard free (28.12) and 4th in the 100-yard fly (1:14.66). Chargers Mellissa Crane and Jennifer Escudero also qualified for the finals meet. Mellissa will swim the 500-yard free again after swimming a 7:12.02 in the prelims and Jennifer will swim the 100-yard back after getting a time of 1:25.85.
FINALS
The women's swim and dive team competed in the OEC Championships where they combined for 218 team points to take 4th place out of five teams. Hanah Salazar (20 points), Cheyanne Graham (13 points), Mellissa Crane (6 points), Marielena McDermott (3 points), Jennifer Escudero (2 points), Shaliyah Day, and Brenda Rivera all swam in three events each in the finals. Marisol Narvaez (31 points), Isabella Garcia (26 points), Celinda Robles (17 points), and Hannah Perez (8 points) participated in two events each on Friday.
In the individual events on Friday, Marisol Narvaez got 3rd in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:12.19) and 4th in the 200-yard individual medley (2:25.36). Isabella Garcia placed 5th in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:13.25. In the relay events, Celinda Robles, Cheyanne Graham, Isabella Garcia, and Marisol Narvaez got on the podium after placing 3rd in the 200-yard free relay with a time of 1:52.33.
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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