The Ventura College men's swim team extended its lead at the Western State Conference Championships on day two of the three-day event at the Ventura Aquatic Center Friday while the Pirate women remained in third place. VC's men won both relays and captured three more individual golds, putting them in a strong position for the title heading into Saturday's final day of competition.
The VC men won the 200-yard medley relay (1:35.94) with the team of Marcus Rodarte, Kaleb Rodarte, Cesar Martins and Mitchell Ongstad. Meanwhile, Alec Kruse, Chris Sands, Marcus Rodarte and Austin Hammond captured gold in the 800-yard freestyle relay (7:10.59). For the women, Ventura's Raquel Rodriguez, Jessica Peace, Delani Clark and Cheyanne Irigoyen brought home bronze in the 200-yard medley relay while Clark, Allison Olney, Irigoyen and Rodriguez also came in third in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
Individually, Ongstad won his second event of the meet, capturing the 100-yard backstroke (51.48) while Marcus Rodarte came in second. Kaleb Rodarte was first in the 400-yard individual medley (4:23.63) and Sands brought home gold in the 100-yard butterfly (51.88) with Martins coming in third. Hammond won silver in the 200-yard freestyle.
The Pirates' team score was also bolstered by three sixth place finishes, Chase Furtado in the 100-yard breaststroke, Tyler Bleiberg in the 400-yard IM, and Kruse in the 200-yard free.
Rodriguez led the Pirate women, finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke. Her time of 103.33 came in close to the winning time of 1:03.00. Meanwhile Peace finished fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke while Irigoyen and Olney came in fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle.
The Pirate men amassed 458 points, with a large lead over second place Cuesta (340). VC's women had 260 points, behind Santa Barbara (366) and Cuesta (277), and ahead of Canyons (246).
The championships conclude on Saturday April 18 at the Ventura Aquatic Center. Prelims begin at 9:00 am with the finals starting at 4:00 pm.