The Ventura College men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened their 2024 season Saturday hosting the Western State Conference Larry Baratte Invitational at the Ventura Aquatic Center. Wyatt Dingman and Ella Montano both produced gold medal performances to lead the way for VC. The Pirate men finished fourth out of nine competing teams while the Ventura women were fifth of 10 teams.
Dingman recorded a score of 166.30 to win the 1m diving event for the Pirates.
Montano made her debut in orange and black by claiming the 100-yard breaststroke touching with a time of 1:09.49, besting the second place finisher by nearly five seconds. She also was third in the 50-yard freestyle and swam the breaststroke leg of the women's 200-yard medley relay team that came in third. Jessica Garcia, Caitlyn Hilgenberg and Kelsee Espitia joined Montano on the relay team.
Luigi Travi won silver in the 100-yard backstroke while Michael Soho and Nick Santander each came in third in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard butterfly races, respectively.
Overall, the VC men totaled 203.5 points to finish fourth of the nine teams. Cuesta ran away with the meet with 551 points and Bakersfield was second with 305. LA Valley finished just ahead of t he Pirates with 239 points and Hancock was fifth with 155 points.
On the women's side, the Pirates earned 147 points for a fifth place finish. Santa Barbara easily won the competition with 551 points followed by LA Valley (297 points), Citrus (214) and Hancock (162). Santa Monica was sixth with 143 points.
Ventura next competes on Friday Feb. 23 at the WSC No. 1 meet at Santa Monica.