Pirate sophomore Mitchell Ongstad closed his career with another gold medal performance in the 100-yard freestyle, earning co-Athlete of the Year honors on the final day of the CCCAA State Swimming Championships Saturday at East Los Angeles College. The Pirate men finished sixth as a team overall.
Ongstad turned in a 44.90 time in the 100-yard freestyle to take his second title of the meet, he also won the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday. Ongstad was honored as the co-Athlete of the Year following the meet with two individual golds and a silver, and a third, fourth and two sixth place finishes on four relay teams.
Chris Sands added to VC's medal count with a third place finish in the 200-yard butterfly (1:50.49). Austin Hammond came in ninth in the 1650-yard freestyle (16:42.15) while Marcus Rodarte was 10th in the 200-yard backstroke (1:55.11). The team of Marcus Rodarte, Hammond, Alec Kruse and Ongstad finished the meet with a fourth place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:05.29).
As a team, Ventura finished in sixth place with 256 points. Golden West won their third straight state title with 555.5 points, followed by Diablo Valley (479), Sierra (361.5), American River (266), and Riverside (265). Orange Coast was seventh with 205 points. It is at least the 15th year where the Pirates have finished in the top-6 at the state championships.
Delani Clark and Raquel Rodriguez each earned points for the VC women for the second straight day. Clark came in 15th in the 1650-yard freestyle (19:32.75) while Rodriguez was 13th in the 200-yard backstroke (2:17.62). The Pirate women earned 19 points for 28th place overall.