Behind Western State Conference Male Athlete of the Year Mitchell Ongstad, who won his third individual event in three days, the Pirates' men's swim team claimed the WSC championship Saturday on the final day of the conference meet at the Ventura Aquatic Center. Marcus Rodarte and Chris Sands also brought home individual golds for the VC men. Meanwhile the Ventura women came in a strong third in the WSC championships.
The title is the 13th overall for the VC men, and the 12th in the last 13 years. The Pirate women also have won 13 WSC championships, the last in 2013.
Ongstad continued his domination of the meet, winning the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.71. Sands was solid bringing home the gold in the 200-yard butterfly (1:52.91) while Marcus Rodarte won the 200-yard backstroke (1:57.85). The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Marcus Rodarte, Austin Hammond, Alec Kruse and Ongstad made it a clean sweep in the relays for the Pirate men, winning in 3:09.46.
Hammond brought home silver in the 1,650-yard freestyle while Cesar Martins (third) and Kaleb Rodarte (fourth) helped VC dominate the 200-yard butterfly. Kruse was fourth in the 100-yard freestyle while Chase Furtado and Alejandro Austudillo finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Raquel Rodriguez produced her second runner-up finish of the meet in the 200-yard backstroke with a school-record time of 2:17.76 while Delani Clark was third in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Cheyanne Irigoyen was fifth in the 100-yard freestyle and Jessica Peace came in sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Irigoyen, Allison Olney, Quinn Cotter and Rodriguez also came in fourth.
The men ran away with the team title with 664 points, far ahead of second place Cuesta with 520 points. The women, meanwhile, needed a solid result in the final event to hold onto third place. Santa Barbara won the team title with 522 points, followed by Cuesta with 412 and VC with 376. Los Angeles Pierce was fourth with 357.5 points.
The teams will now prepare for the CCCAA State Championships to be held April 30, May 1 and May 2 at East Los Angeles College.