Ready to do a reverse dive on the 3-meter board, Jose Bahena jumped in the air but landed with his toes hanging off the edge of the board, costing him a point reduction.
Bahena scored a total of 241 points on the 3-meter diving board at the conference diving finals at EC April 16-17. Only one point behind first place, Bahena qualified to compete at the state championships.
“Bahena had a rough day, but has been practicing and doing well. He is optimistic about gong to state and is going to dive great,” coach Corey Stanbury said.
Swimming his hardest at the weekend conference swim finals at Mt. San Antonio College, Nicholas Timko qualified in the 500-yard freestyle with 4:47 and in the 200-yard freestyle with 1:42.
“I’m really excited that I made state, but I feel I could have trained harder. Overall, I am satisfied with the results,” Timko said.
Competing against seven other colleges, EC came in sixth place due to a limited number of swimmers compared to all the other schools.
In order to improve times and get ready for state championships, the men have to shave off their body hair and the woman have to shave body hair that they did not shave off all year, Stanbury said.
About 90 percent of the swimmers swam their lifetime best, Stanbury said. Out of 60 swimmers, only seven came short of their bests.
Vincent Fiamengo dropped nearly seven seconds off his new unshaved time of 1:49 in the 200-yard freestyle.
“I don’t think I qualified for state but we all worked very hard this season and those who did qualify for state definitely deserve to be there,” Fiamengo said.
It was raining the first day of the conference, which made it tough for the sprinters to warm up before their race, Stanbury said.
Sprinting in the 100-yard backstroke, Axel Seixas swam his lifetime best with 59 seconds.
“I put in 100 percent effort into that race and that’s what it took to achieve my goal of going faster than a minute,” Seixas said.
Over the past several months, the swimmers have been training with hard aerobic conditioning and now they get to rest and wear expensive swim suits, Stanbury said.
Amanda Atkins could not break 20 minutes in the 1650-yard freestyle before coming to EC, but she may qualify for the state championship with her new time of 19:17.
“I got third place and if I make state, I’ll be really excited, but for now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” Atkins said. “I worked really hard to break 20 minutes and I am happy with my improvement.”