OCC Aiming to Extend Its Streak in Swimming

The Orange Coast women’s swimming team, which has the longest dual-meet winning streak in the state, will try to increase it Friday.

The Pirates, who have won 103 consecutive meets dating back to 1982, have their first dual meet of the season at 2 p.m. Friday at San Diego Mesa.

The Pirates, who are coached by Don Watson and Jon Rathfelder, have won seven consecutive state titles and 11 of the past 12.

OCC is coming off an outstanding performance in winning the Cuesta Invitational on Saturday. The 22-team field is the strongest the Pirates will face until the state meet May 2-4 at Long Beach Belmont Plaza.

The Pirates finished with 518.5 points to second-place Diablo Valley’s 412. The score could have been much closer, but Diablo Valley was without one of its best swimmers, according to Rathfelder.

Rori Rangel was the top OCC performer at Cuesta. Rangel, a freshman from Valencia High, has the fastest time in the state this year in the 100 butterfly (59.47) and also won the 100 and 200 individual medley races.

She also swam the anchor leg on both winning freestyle relay teams. Her time of 53.4 for the final split in the 400 relay helped OCC come from behind to beat Diablo Valley by 0.77 of a second.

Hilary Cox won the 50 backstroke and was second in the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke also for OCC.

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Men’s swimming: Golden West totally dominated the men’s side of the Cuesta Invitational.

The Rustlers won 10 of 18 races, and finished with 591 points. Diablo Valley was second with 450 points.

The Rustlers, a clear favorite for the state title, also won four of the five relay races.

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Baseball: Cypress Coach Scott Pickler has spent plenty of time talking about how inexperienced his position players are. The Chargers start only two players--Keith Ginter and Jeremy Booth--from last year’s team.

Cypress starts the week in first place in the Orange Empire Conference with a one-game lead over Fullerton. The one place the Chargers have experience is on the mound.

Mike Cosgrove, a sophomore right-hander, is 6-0, and Ara Petrosian, also a sophomore right-hander, is 5-1.

Cosgrove has 15 victories in two seasons and needs three more to become Cypress’ all-time leader. Petrosian, who worked in relief most of last season, was 4-1 with five saves and has made the adjustment to starter very well.

His only loss was a 1-0 decision to Riverside the first week of the season in the College of the Desert tournament. He also pitched 11 innings without a decision as Cypress beat Riverside, 5-2, in 13 innings.

“Those two have been very, very good for us,” Pickler said.

Cypress (19-6, 7-2) hosts Riverside (14-8, 3-6) at 2 p.m. today and then defending state champion Rancho Santiago (16-5, 4-3) visits at 2 p.m. Thursday. Cypress plays at Rancho Santiago at noon Saturday.

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Bob Schermerhorn, the men’s basketball coach at Riverside, was selected the Southern California coach of the year.

Schermerhorn, a former assistant at UC Irvine, led the Tigers to a co-championship in the Orange Empire Conference with Bill Brummel’s Saddleback team.

Riverside reached the state tournament and lost to eventual champion Ventura in the semifinals.

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Notes

Matt Sauk, the quarterback at Orange Coast last fall, has signed with Utah State. He passed for 3,037 yards, which is second best in OCC history, and 20 touchdowns in two seasons. Tim Lane, a sophomore wide receiver at OCC, signed with Gardner-Webb University, a Division II college in Boiling Springs, N.C. . . . Judy Howard, a sophomore guard at Cypress, signed with Cedarville College, an NAIA school in Cedarville, Ohio. . . . Golden West’s Andy Fitzell, who plays at No. 3 singles for the Rustler men’s tennis team, is 11-0 this season.