VC sophomore Mitchell Ongstad broke out with three individual golds Friday and Saturday at the highly competitive Cuesta Invitational in San Luis Obispo. The Ventura men placed second in the 15-team event while the Pirate women came in seventh. Raquel Rodriguez led the efforts for the Ventura women.
Ongstad finished first in the 100-yard freestyle (45.73 seconds) on Friday while besting the field in the 50-yard freestyle (21.05) and 100-yard backstroke (51.15) on Saturday. Meanwhile, Austin Hammond won the 500-yard freestyle (4:49.31) on the second day and finished second in both the 200-yard butterfly and 1,450-yard freestyle on day one. Chris Sands claimed gold in the 200-yard butterfly (1:53.80). In total, Ventura won a meet-high seven events including the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Rodriguez claimed a pair of fifth place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke (1:08.19) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:24.52). Delani Clark was fifth in the 100-yard individual medley (1:12.00).
The Pirate teams return to the pool on Saturday March 14 in a Western State Conference competition at Santa Monica.