
Santa Monica rare new women's state swim champ
Complete Overall 40-Event Results
MONTEREY PARK - For the first 43 state meets, just six colleges experienced what it's like to win a women's team title. Santa Monica College became the seventh on Saturday as the Corsairs captured the 3C2A Swimming and Diving championship. | ORIGINAL RELEASE
The Corsairs were paced by sweeping all five of the relays in a true team triumph. SMC's roster of talented swimmers began with last year's Swimmer of the Meet Risa Akatsu but was bolstered by Wilma Henriksson, Ema Kilmauskas, Emily Lester, Reva Reignier, and Valerie Burchard. Santa Monica is also the first Western State Conference college to win a women's swim title.
"When Emily had a good exchange in the final relay, then I could breathe because Sierra pushed us throughout the meet," said SMC head coach Brian Eskridge. " I wasn't sure what we had coming into the year, but then we picked up Wilma and things fell into place. These swimmers pushed each other every practice led by Risa, our leader. I never thought before the season that we were going to win a state title. I'm so proud of what this group accomplished."
Santa Monica won by 38 points over second-place Sierra with Orange Coast placing third.
2023 Meet Awards
Men's Swimmer of the Meet: Ethan Smith, Orange Coast, 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly titles (6-time state champion, 2-time Swimmer of Year)
Women's Co-Swimmers of the Meet: Mia Park, El Camino, 100, 200, 500 freestyle titles; Courtney Seljeseth, De Anza, 200 IM, 100/200 breaststroke titles
Men's Performance of the Meet: Jake Reuter, 400 IM (state meet record)
Women's Performance of the Meet: Isabella Urlando, Santa Barbara, 200 backstroke (state meet record)
Men's Swim Coach of the Year: Chris Breitbart, Sierra
Women's Swim Coach of the Year: Brian Eskridge, Santa Monica
Men's Diver of the Year: Donovan Taylor, Palomar, 1-meter, 3-meter board champion
Women's Diver of the Year: Maia Chase, Santa Rosa, 1-meter board champion
Men's Diving Coach of the Year: Marnie Young, Palomar
Women's Diving Coach of the Year: Eddie Stevens, Santa Rosa
WOMEN'S FINAL TOP 10 STANDINGS: 1. Santa Monica 410, 2. Sierra 372, 3. Orange Coast 333, 4. Santa Rosa JC 304, 5. Santa Barbara CC 304, 5. Santa Rosa JC, 6. Palomar 201, 7. Diablo Valley 193, 9. Riverside CC 173.5, 10. American River, 150.
MEN'S FINAL TOP 10 STANDINGS: 1. Sierra 712 2. Orange Coast 502, 3. Mt. San Antonio 316.5, 4. Las Positas 281.5, 5. Palomar 237, 6. Golden West 232, 7. Cuesta 207, 8. College of the Sequoias 188, 9. West Valley 185, 10. Riverside 155.
THURSDAY, MAY 4
Event #1: W-200 freestyle relay: Champion--Santa Monica 1:39.89 (Risa Akatsu, Reva Reignier, Wilma Henriksson, Emily Lester), 2. Santa Barbara 1:39.40, 3. Orange Coast 1:39.45. A rematch of the Western State Conference championships saw the Corsairs' Lester come through in the anchor leg with a 23.92-second split to SBCC's 24.47 for the win by .84 of a second. The Vaqueros scored the silver but just .05.
Event #2: M-200 freestyle relay: Champion--Sierra, 1:21.63 (Evan Terry, Jake Reuter, Christopher Nihart, Andrew Espinoza), 2. Orange Coast, 1:22.01, 3. Mt. San Antonio, 1:24.52. 1:23.98. In a near repeat of last year's race, Espinoza's 20.03 final leg was enough to beat OCC in a near-state meet record time (just .11 off). The Pirates closer Ethan Smith had an explosive 19.63 to help his squad take silver again.
Event #3: W-500 freestyle: Champion--Mia Park, El Camino, 5:04.73, 2. Giselle Quinonez, Orange Coast, 5:07.09, 3. Maya Garcia-Hale, Grossmont, 5:13.71. Park swam to form as her opening 26.46 set the tone and her 30.93 closing split was also faster than the field in this distance free. Park took control by the 200-yard mark while Quinonez, last year's state champ, swam faster this year, but settled for the silver.
Event #4: M-500 freestyle: Champion--Marcu Holunga, Las Positas, 4:35.09, 2. Tyler LeDet, Riverside, 4:36.77, 3. Deklan Heinzen, Sierra, 4:37.49. Holunga tried to shake LeDet, but the Tigers swimmer was stroke-for-stroke until Holunga turned on the after-burners with final splits of 27.89, 28.10, and then a fast 27.15 to close out this distance gold.
Event #5: W-200 individual medley: Champion--Courtney Seljeseth, De Anza, 2:07.05, 2. Emma Hart, Palomar, 2:07.21, 3. Risa Akatsu, Santa Monica, 2:10.72. Seljeseth's backstroke second leg of 37.30 was the back-breaker in helping her just edge Hart by .16. Hart had the best closing freestyle leg of 30.27. Last year's champion Akatsu settled for the bronze.
Event #6: M-200 individual medley: Champion--Alec Mortensen, West Valley, 1:49.56, 2. Jake Reuter, Sierra, 1:49.84, 3. Matthew Simpson, Orange Coast, 1:51.09. Reuter figured he was in good shape after a solid 23.46 opening butterfly, a field-best 26.66 in the backstroke, and held the lead after the breaststroke, but the defending champion was caught in the final seven yards by Mortensen for an exciting finish in the versatile stroke event. The Vikings swimmer went for broke on the final split with a 25.39 freestyle close to Reuter's 27.62 for the gold. Simpson of OCC had an identical time last year to take third (scored second in 2022).
Event #7: W-50 freestyle: Champion--Alessandra Fleischman, Palomar, 23.91, 2. Jillian Lambert, Sequoias, 24.01, 3. Camryn Bussey, Sierra, 24.16. The Comet soared here at the finish as Fleischman edged out defending champ Lambert by just .10. The Palomar swimmer won from the #6 lane and beat her top state time of 24.01 that she set coming into the meet.
Event #8: M-50 freestyle: Champion--Ethan Smith, Orange Coast, 19.81, 2. 20.17, 2. Joshy Peters, Sequoias, 20.31, 3. Sullivan Moore, Long Beach, 20.58. Smith tried his best to break the state meet record and came up .23 short. Still Smith picked up his second straight sprint state title and beat his time from 2002 by .36. He foreshadowed his speedy 50 with a 19.97 top prelims mark.
Event #9: W-400 medley relay: Champion--Santa Monica 3:53.89 (Reignier, Henriksson, Ema Kilmauskas, Lester), 2. Santa Barbara, 4:03.55, 3. Sierra, 4:04.47. It wasn't Secretariat in the Belmont but it felt like it as the Corsairs won by nearly 10 seconds faster than second-place SBCC. Henriksson's breaststroke leg (1:04.48)and Kilmauskas' butterfly (56.92) made it easy for anchor Lester to extend things to the finish.
Event #10: M-400 medley relay: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion--Orange Coast 3:17.40 (Tatsuki Inoue, Simpson, Smith, Mason Parker), 2. Sierra 3:19.48, 3. Mt. San Antonio 3:24.37. Smith's butterfly leg of 46.51 was the catalyst and Parker's closing 45.72 freestyle allowed the Pirates to break an 8-year-old record in this relay.
Event #11:W-1-meter board: Champion--Maia Chase, Santa Rosa, 228.60 points, 2. Lia Borja, Orange Coast, 221.25, 3. Laurel Plewe, Sierra, 206.5. Chase used her second and fifth dives to be the difference in taking the short board title. She scored 49.5 points on an inward 1-1/2 somersault tuck, then picked up 46.2 points on a forward 1-1/2 somersault 1 twist free. Borja, the SoCal champion, took the silver with her best a 42.5 points on a back 1 somersault 1-1/2 twist free. Plewe needed a great final dive for 46.2 points on an inward 1-1/2 somersault tuck to grab the bronze.
Event #12: M-3-meter board: Champion--Donovan Taylor, Palomar, 260.35 points. 2. Tony Arteaga, San Joaquin Delta, 238.90, 3. Ty Hunt, San Diego Mesa, 224.75. Scoring more than 67 points higher than a year ago, Taylor became a 2-time state champ on the high board with powerful opening and closing dives. He scored 52.65 on an inward 2-1/2 somersault tuck, then closed out a brilliant community college run by nailing a back 1-1/2 somersault 2-1/2 twist in totaling 57.4 points. Arteaga had three 51-plus point dives, but a rough opening dive gave Taylor enough breathing room. Arteaga scored 54 points on his fifth dive--an inward 2-1/2 somersault tuck. Seven divers scored 200 or more points after no one reached that in 2022.
FRIDAY, MAY 5
Event #13: W-200 medley relay: Champion--Santa Monica, 1:48.55 (Emily Lester, Wilma Henriksson, Ema Kilmauskas, Risa Akatsu), 2. West Valley 1:51.74, 3. Santa Barbara 1:51.75. It was the breaststroke leg of Kilmauskaus that opened things up for the Corsairs as Akatsu finished strong for the 3-plus second victory. West Valley touched the wall in a photo finish of .01 for second over third-place SBCC.
Event #14: M-200 medley relay: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion--Orange Coast, 1:29.79 (Tatsuki Inoue, Matthew Simpson, Ethan Smith, Dane Howell), 2. Sierra 1:30.62, 3. 3. Mt. San Antonio 1:32.27. Howell stormed the final 50 to cap breaking the state meet record by .20. Sierra was just .63 off the record but had to settle for the silver.
Event #15: W-400 individual medley: Champion-Stanislava Holzhauser, Santa Rosa, 4:34.71, 2. Kilmauskas, Santa Monica, 4:39.03, 3. Emm Marsalek, Allan Hancock, 4:47.23. Shaving nearly 13 seconds off her prelims time, Holzhauser pulled away from the pack for the win in the longer versatile event.
Event #16: M-400 individual medley: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion--Jake Reuter, Sierra, 3:52.54, 2. Matthew Simpson, Orange Coast, 3:59.54, 3. Max Pecile, Allan Hancock, 4:01.58. In what has to be one of the greatest improvements ever from freshman to sophomore, Reuter swam a full four seconds faster to break the state record in the longer versatile event and defend his IM crown.
Event #17: W-100 butterfly: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion--Emma Hart, Palomar, 54.82, 2. Isabella Urlando, Santa Barbara, 57.19, Reigner, Santa Monica, 58.38. Hart broke the state meet record in the event at 55.30 in the prelims. She then smashed that mark in the finals by .48.
Event #18: M-100 butterfly: Champion--Ethan Smith, Orange Coast, 47.50, 2. Eric Yeh, 48.56, Mt. San Antonio, Tommy Collins, Sierra, 48.90. A repeat champion, Smith won but was .22 slower than his title from '22. "Slow" is something not usually in Smith's vocabulary as he proved in Thursday's freestyle sprints.
Event #19: W-200 freestyle: Champion--Mia Park, El Camino, 1:51.54, 2. Camryn Bussey, Sierra, 1:54.10, 3. Risa Akatsu, Santa Monica, 1:55.82. Park picked up her second freestyle title (won 500) with ease. Bussey finished for silver ahead of defending champ Akatsu, who was surprisingly three seconds off her freshman winning time and took the bronze.
Event #20: M-200 freestyle: Champion--Alec Mortensen, West Valley, 1:38.24, 2. Joshy Peters, Sequoias, 1:40.81, 3. Stash Perry, Cuesta, 1:40.85. Using the same closing speed he performed on Thursday in winning the 200 IM, Mortensen stormed to a 2-second plus gold medal win while Peters barely edged Perry for silver by .04. Sierra's Andrew Espinosa, the defending champ, swam a surprising seventh, two seconds off his winning time in '22.
Event #21: W-100 breaststroke: Champion--Courtney Seljeseth, De Anza, 1:03.68, 2. Henrikkson, Santa Monica, 1:05.33, 3. Ashley Sand, Las Positas, 1:06.78. Seljeseth, the 200 IM winner, picks up her second gold without being threatened.
Event #22: M-100 breaststroke: Champion--Srboljub Filipovic, Golden West, 55.90. 56.08, 2. Tomas Townsend, American River, 56.31, 3. Zachary Zauhar-Kurr, Las Positas, 57.01. Fiilopovic is a back-to-back champ here as he beat his '22 time by .18.
Event #23: W-100 backstroke: Champion--Isabella Urlando, Santa Barbara, 56.07, 2. Olivia Khan, Foothill, 58.36, 3. Reva Reignier, Santa Monica, 59.32.
Urlando shaved a few seconds off her prelim time and used her technically strong strokes to take control of this title win.
Event #24: M-100 backstroke: Champion--Evan Terry, Sierra, 48.19, 2. Tatsuki Inoue, Orange Coast, 48.93, Charles Fleming, Sierra, 50.28. Terry becomes a 2-time champion in the short back event in beating his '22 time by .83. Inoue was a repeat silver, dropping .38 from last year but not enough to catch Terry.
Event #25: 800 freestyle relay: Champion--Santa Monica, 7:59.51, 2. Sierra, 8:07.14, 3. Riverside 8:10.11: Looking for a state title, the Corsairs are dominating the relays and this one was no different with a sub 8-minute mark to win their fourth relay title.
Event #26: M-800 freestyle relay: Champion--Sierra, 6:44.51 (Reuter, Collins, Christopher Nihart, Lathan Skeehan), 2. Orange Coast, 6:49.72 3. Las Positas, 6:52.85. The Wolverines continue to be well on their way to a possible state team title with 40 more points here for their third title of the day.
Event #27: W-1-meter board: Champion--Laurel Plewe, Sierra, 250.85 points, 2. Maia Chase, Santa Rosa, 219.5, 3. Lourdes Salsa, San Diego Mesa, 209.65. Plewe was ultra-consistent in all six of her dives, scoring 40 or more on five of them to secure the high board gold. Her best score had the highest degree of difficulty (2.4) as she totaled 46.8 points on her fourth attempt with a forward 2-1/2 somersault pike. Chase, the high board champ, got off to a good start, scoring 44.4 on her second try (back 1-1/2 somersault 1-1/2 twist), but was unable to keep up with Plewe's solid run. Mesa's Salas best mark was a back 1-1/2 somersault tuck for 41.8 points as she scored the bronze.
Event #28: M-1-meter board: Champion--Donovan Taylor, Palomar, 260.5 2. Ty Hunt, San Diego Mesa, 242.85, 3. Tony Arteaga, San Joaquin Delta, 239.65. Taylor scores the daily diving double in winning the short board after his triumph on Thursday in the high board. Taylor and defending champion Hunt were virtually tied in points going into the fifth of six dives. The Comet then nailed the landing on a back 1-1/2 somersault 1/2 twist, scoring his high of 55 points. Hunt picked the wrong time for his lowest-scoring dive at #5 (24.15) on a reverse 2 somersault tuck. That proved to be the difference for Taylor's third title in two years. While Hunt took silver he scored more points than he did when he won the 1-meter title in 2022, including a wonderful 50.4 points score on his fourth dive-an inward 2 somersault tuck. Arteaga, who opened with a monster 57.6 score on an inward 1-1/2 somersault pike, was a very close third.
Saturday, May 6
Event #29: W-1,650 freestyle: Champion--Giselle Quinonez, Orange Coast, 17:45.01, 2. Emma Marsalek, Allan Hancock, 18:12.02, 3. Kennedy Brubaker, San Joaquin Delta, 18:23.31. Quinonez not only repeated as the mile swim champ she did so by slicing 20 seconds off her freshman time. The Pirate overtook early leader Marsalek by the 500-yard mark and distanced herself from the field the rest of the way.
Event #30: M-1,650 freestyle: Champion--Marco Holunga, Las Positas, 15:53.52, 2. Samuel Slezak, Mt. San Antonio, 15:54.05, 3. Brandon Samaniego, Orange Coast, 16:03.22. Once again, regular seed times didn't apply in the men's mile as Holunga led from wire to wire, but fought off a late challenge by Slezak. Despite being as far back as 10 seconds, Slezak made up a lot of the difference over the final 500 yards including a phenomenal final 100 of 54.43. Holunga was a double title winner with his early 500 freestyle gold.
Event #31: W-200 backstroke: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion--Isabella Urlando, Santa Barbara, 2:01.56, 2. Olivia Khan, Foothill, 2:06.15, 3. Ruby Gonzalez, Santa Rosa, 2:08.30. Urlando saved up for the final by taking off 4.27 seconds from her prelims warmup for the meet's sixth new state standard. She broke the record of San Mateo's Erica Vong by .19. A fast 29.26 opening 50 split got things going for the speedy Vaquero.
Event #32: M-200 backstroke: Champion--Tatsuki Inoue, Orange Coast, 1:45.99, 2. Matthew Simpson, Orange Coast, 1:48.12, 3. Evan Terry, Sierra, 1:48.14. Call it deja vu or consistency, but the top three swimmers made it easy for the release author by duplicating the exact 1-2-3 order of finish as last year. Inoue dropped his '22 first-place winning time by 1.62 seconds. Simpson sliced his by 1.05 and Terry's by 1.41.
Event #33: W-100 freestyle: Champion--Mia Park, El Camino, 52.11, Camryn Bussey, Sierra, 52.28, 3. Alessandra Fleischman, Palomar, 52.42. Like last year, defending champ Bussey bolted to the lead after 50 at 24.98, but as expected this year, the field pressured her late. Bussey, Park, and Fleischman battled over the last 10 yards with Park just edging out Bussey by .17 for the El Camino swimmer's third gold. Park swam an exceptional 26.83 final 50 for the difference.
Event #34: M-100 freestyle: Champion--Joshy Peters, Sequoias, 44.33, 2. Sullivan Moore, Long Beach, 45.39, 3. Andrew Espinosa, Sierra, 45.42. Peters shaved 1.11 seconds off his third-place time as a freshman to overtake defending champ Espinosa and second-place Moore for the gold here. Moore led after 50 at 21.49, but Peters exploded down the stretch and hit 22.77 over the last 50 for the title.
Event #35: W-200 breaststroke: Champion--Courtney Seljeseth, De Anza, 2:19.70, 2. Maya Garcia-Hale, Grossmont, 2:23.79, 3. Wilma Henriksson, Santa Monica, 2:24.24. Seljeseth became a double champion with her dominating performance in the longer breaststroke. She opened with a 30.73, but it was her middle splits that allowed her to breeze to a more than 4-second victory. One of the greatest swimmers in Coast Conference history, she won all three of her individual events.
Event #36: M-200 breaststroke: Champion--Jake Reuter, Sierra, 2:00.53, 2. Deklan Heinzen, Sierra, 2:03.19, 3. Srboljub Filipovic, Golden West, 2:03.41. "Roto Reuter that's the name and away go Sierra's troubles down the drain." That's what Reuter meant to the Wolverines as the uber talent collected his fifth state gold in two years and helped his team immensely in winning two state team championships.
Event #37: W-200 butterfly: Champion--STATE MEET RECORD-Champion-Emma Hart, Palomar, 2:03.76, 2. Ema Kilmauskas, Santa Monica, 2:07.16, 3. Stanislava Holzhauser, Santa Rosa, 2:11.37. In informing the public address announcer her walk-up song, Hart pulled a Babe Ruth with her "called shot," predicting she would break the state record in this event. And that's exactly what she did in posting a third state record in two days as the Queen of the Fly. Hart did it the hard way as she needed every bit of her final 32.24 split to beat Diablo Valley's Kelsey Leonard's 2015 record by just .02. Hart broke 2 state meet records and did not receive an award, which tells you how impressive the group of swimmers were on the women's side this year.
Event #38: M-200 butterfly: Champion--STATE MEET RECORD-Champion-Ethan Smith, Orange Coast, 1:44.45, 2. Tommy Collins, Sierra, 1:48.04, 3. Caleb Tracy, Sierra, 1:51.62. Falling a bit short last year, Smith was determined to break the state record and he obliterated a 17-year-old standard by 1.19. Smith opened with a blistering 23.03 and closed like a man on a mission with a 28.25. Sierra's Collins and Tracy took silver and bronze--the second year in a row for Tracy.
Event #39: W-400 freestyle relay: Champion--Santa Monica 3:33.67 (Risa Akatsu, Reva Reignier, Ema Kilmauskas, Emily Lester) 2. Santa Barbara 3:37.99, 3. Orange Coast 3:41.99. A remarkable five relay titles were achieved by the team champion Corsairs capped with another strong win by 4-plus seconds to close out the meet. Once again fellow Western State Conference foe SBCC grabbed second. Lester was a worthy closer here with a 52.64 split.
Event #40: M-400 freestyle relay: Champion--STATE MEET RECORD-Champion-Orange Coast, 2:59.94 (Ethan Smith, Dane Howell, Matthew Simpson, Mason Parker), 2. Sierra 3:00.52, 3. West Valley 3:06.05. An amazing run of relay swims by the Pirates was capped by what else but another state record as this four-man unit became the first-ever to break three minutes. STATE MEET RECORD-100 freestyle-Ethan Smith, 43.58. Smith's opening 100 split snapped the state record of 43.83 set by San Diego Mesa's Brandon Crabtree in 2018.
Release by Robert Lewis, for the 3C2A-state meet SID