It was so close, that as the last two swimmers reached to touch the wall, the rest of their team looked to the boards only to see EC beat Chaffey.
The women’s 200-yard medley relay was one of the many exciting events at the South Coast Conference Championship April 16-18 at Chaffey College.
“The two teams were within two-tenths of a second throughout the entire race,” coach Corey Stanbury said. “They swam extremely well.”
The men also had their share of excitement as they tried to keep their first place spot throughout most of the conference championships.
“It was a very close race,” sophomore Erica Shaw said.
Sophomore swimmers Mike Gavola, Mark Rehbein, Jeff Craver and Daniel Bender had to each swim 200 yards for the men’s 800-yard freestyle relay.
“We went into the event standing in second place. We ended up winning third place for that event and took the first place spot back,” Craver said.
On the last day of the conference championships, the men lost the last three events to Mt. San Antonio College, placing them in second place.
In the end, the men missed Mt. SAC’s first place title by 51 points.
“At least we beat the host team (Chaffey College),” freshman Amanda Sloss said.
The women squeezed their way into fifth place at the conference championships, landing behind Long Beach City College by eight points and Chaffey by two points.
“The women were expected to finish behind Chaffey and Long Beach colleges,” Stanbury said.
“We made up eighty points the last day, which was amazing,” Shaw said.
Another amazing feat was Shaw’s 50-meter backstroke in 28.2 seconds, which broke the 1996 school record of 29.07 seconds held by Karin Goldsmith.
“Erica worked very hard all season,” Stanbury said.
It paid off when Shaw was the only swimmer to make it to the state finals April 23-25 at Saddleback College.
Shaw worked on start and turn technique sprints in preparation for both the conference and the state championships.
“Erica was really nervous (for state),” Craver said.
“It was fun and exciting; it felt good,” Shaw said.
Shaw placed 13th in the 100-meter backstroke and 10th in California in the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 28.03, breaking the record she set at the conference championships.
“Everyone has jitters before a race,” Sloss said.
So was the case for freshman distance freestyle swimmer Candace Smith who tried not to think much about the conference.
She placed third in her best event, the 1650-meter freestyle.
Stanbury was surprised by freshman sprint freestyle swimmer Kyle Atkins when he swam the 50-meter freestyle in 22.60.
“All season he swam at twenty-three seconds,” Stanbury said.
“For a fifty-meter swim, that is a large amount of time,” Stanbury said.
“This was the fastest meet ever.”
Harmatz and Bender would have qualified for state finals last year with their times this year.
“It was very difficult to make it to state,” Stanbury said. “After the conference, the team was very happy and satisfied.”
“This season was amazing,” Bahena said. “It was the best team I have competed on.”