The women’s swim and dive team is wrapping up an undefeated season with the three-day state championship at East L.A. College that started Thursday.
The team claimed its third straight Western State Conference swimming and diving title since the program started three years ago.
The Vaqueros are 44-0 in the regular season and 22-0 in WSC meets and are holding a 63-win streak that extends three years of hard work and dedication.
“I think we’ll do really well I mean that’s what we hope for,” Addison Seale said. “For as small as a team we have, I think what we accomplished is pretty incredible.”
Diver Gina Jacobson helped fulfill Seale’s hopes by leading City College to second place as of the end of Thursday’s competition, scoring 246.85 points to set a new state record in 1-meter diving.
“Both of us have usually been coming in top five,” diver Ashley Dettmann said. “So you know, I’m pretty confident we’ll do pretty well at state.”
Dettmann managed to take ninth with 166.30 points.
“As a coach, that’s what you dream for,” head dive coach Patricia Salvatore said. “You dream to have athletes like Ashley and Gina.”
Jacobson is returning to the City College dive team next year, but Dettmann will either transfer to UC Santa Cruz or take a year off school to work.
“We wouldn’t be where we are without [Trish and the dive team],” head swim coach Brian “Chuckie” Roth said. “When we got to conference, we started off day one with a 78-point-lead because of those two girls.”
The Vaqueros 200 free relay finished third, breaking the school record by 0.63 seconds. The team consisted of Alex Humann, Mackenzie Richards, Addison Seale and Reese Ellestad.
“This group going through, I didn’t really think we could even win conference to be upfront with you,” Roth said. “Our slogan was dig deep and that’s exactly what they’ve done.”
Roth has led all his swim teams to increasingly better positions in state championships placing eleventh his first year, eighth the next and fourth last year. Roth believes this team could place as high as fifth, but said he’ll be happy with the team no matter the outcome.
“I think that this group here has trained pretty hard and efficiently for this weekend and I have full faith that we will perform to the best of our abilities which I think will be pretty good,” Humann said.
Humann placed twelfth in the 500 free with a personal best time of 5:18.60. She will stay at the City College for another year and hopes to join Seale at UCSB after next year.
Ellestad broke a school record in the 50 free which placed her at third. She led City College to its third Western State Conference title last week in Santa Maria, winning the 100 freestyle and anchoring the 400 free relay to victory.
State championships will continue from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.