It was an exciting day for Wendell Perkins, Matt Pifer and coach Corey Stanbury.

The three will be heading to Ventura this weekend for the state swimming and diving finals.

Perkins, a diver, and Pifer, a swimmer, both qualified for the state finals this season.

“I already knew, Wendell Perkins was going to the finals,” Stanbury said. “I know he is the best in the state.”

Perkins finished second in the conference last week in the men’s diving program. He will be competing this week in the one meter and the three meter events.

Pifer, a freshman phenom, will be competing in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle and 100 meter backstrokes.

“I know he is a good swimmer; he works very hard,” Stanbury said. “I felt that he would swim very well.”

“I want to see if I could drop my time more so than at the conference (in the 100 meter),” Pifer said. “I was surprised, more than anything, that it was the backstroke.”

Last week was the season finals at Mt. SAC.

The men had a strong second place finish, with the women placing sixth.

Stanbury said that the finals went extremely well with both teams, hard work paying off for the swimmers.

“The men ended up second,” Stanbury said. “They were leading the whole meet until the last three events.”

The Warriors finished with a score of 570, losing out to Mt. SAC who finished with 618.

“It went well,” Pifer said. “I think everybody scored a point for the team.”

Weather was a factor during last Saturday, with extreme heat making it hard to be compete.

Zuri Maldonado, 19, became dehydrated and her problem severely affected her performance that day.

“I never thought I could swim with the times that I did,” Maldonado said. She competed in 400 medley relay, 500 freestyle, and the 200 freestyle.

Stanbury said, that women’s team had good swimmers but not enough depth. The women finished sixth in conference.

Stanbury said that he is looking forward to next year.

“Very optimistic, ” he said. “Especially on the men’s team.”

Stanbury said that there are some good recruits. If the team continues to improve, the team could make a run for the state finals next year.