COMMUNITY COLLEGE SWIMMING : Golden West Sweeps South Coast Championships

Golden West College won the South Coast Conference men’s swimming and diving championships on Saturday with 987 points, beating runner-up El Camino by 461 points in the three-day meet at Golden West.

El Camino finished with 526 points, followed by Mt. San Antonio (399), Cerritos (396), Long Beach (388), Pasadena (255) and Fullerton (10).

Saturday, the Golden West men won five events and Chris Clarke set a conference record by winning the 100-yard freestyle in 46.44 seconds.

Golden West swept the first three places in the 100 freestyle, with Smith (47.78) finishing second and Mark Nielsen (48.00) third.

Also winning for the Rustlers: Paul Allen in the 1,650 free (16:53.92), Matt Mauser in the 200 backstroke (2:00.41) and Chad Blanchard in the 200 butterfly (1:57.37). Golden West also won the 400 freestyle relay (3:08.21).

In the women’s division, Golden West won with 764 points, followed by Mt. San Antonio (461), El Camino (423), Long Beach (278), Cerritos (233) and Pasadena (204).

In the 200 freestyle relay, Golden West set a conference record with a time of 1:43.51. The previous record was 1:44.11 by Mt. San Antonio in 1988.

Golden West swept the 100 backstroke, with Crystal Seibert (1:04.63) finishing first, Christi Kasa (1:05.93) second, Teresa Magario (1:06.62) third, Maria Sieber (1:08.44) fourth and Sharon Lawson (1:09.11) fifth. Other Golden West winners were Lisa Hadfield (58.96) in the 100 butterfly and Kim Nance (1:12.25) in the 100 breaststroke.