With the torrential rain covering her face every time she came up for a breath of air, Kelly Suk swam through the 1650 meters race to set a personal record last saturday.
Suk and the rest of the swimmers will travel to Mt. SAC tomorrow for a duel meet against the host Mounties and Cerritos College.
“The meet should be interesting; the men’s and the women’s teams for both colleges are very good teams,” coach Corey Stanbury said.
Mt. SAC, which won the invitational it hosted last week, will be one of the best teams EC will face this year.
“We have holes that Mt. SAC has strengths in,” Stanbury said. “They have very good swimmers in the breaststroke and the butterfly.”
The Cerritos’ men finished just above EC last week at 7 place at the invitational and while Mt. SAC seemed out of reach.
“Cerritos is going to be tough and they might give us a run for our money,” Robert Baird said. “Mt. SAC is a little deeper than us and will be harder to compete with.”
For the women, Stanbury might set up his team so it can defeat Cerritos since Mt. SAC might run away with the competition.
“I am going to throw a few surprises at Cerritos,” Stanbury said. “I’ll see if it will work and watch where the chips fall when it comes to Mt. SAC.”
Last Saturday, the men finished 8 out of 21 teams and the women placed 13 out of 21 at the Mt. SAC invitational.
The lone diver for EC was Wendell Perkins, who had an impresive showing with a score of 331.30.
“It was a cold, raining and wet day, but we still had pretty good swims,” Stanbury said. “At some points, it was raining buckets.”
Probably none more then when it rained during the 1650 meters, one of the longest of the day, and when Suk’s heat was up for the race.
“Kelly swam her best time in a sixteen fifty through a monsoon; the rain was unbelievable,” Stanbury said.
The invitational was a chance for the Warriors to check out the competition that they will face this year.
“It was good to see our competition in our conference before we face them,” Baird said. “It’s also fun to see how good other teams out of our conference are.”
While it rained throughout most of the day, the experience was still enjoyable for the team as the players got to spend time together.
“It’s always good to travel with your teammates because that is where everybody starts to form a bond with each other,” Adam Halcrow said.
After doing well at the invitational, the warriors are looking forward for the rest of their meets but they know the road ahead might not be an easy one.
“Swimming meets; It’s like playing a video game waiting for the next level to come; you know it’s going to be hard but fun,” Halcrow said.
