The Ventura College men's and women's swimming and diving teams are hosting the Western State Conference Championships with the men in second place and the women in fourth after the first of three days of competition at the Ventura Aquatic Center. Michael Soho and Ella Montano led their respective teams, each earning individual silver medals while swimming legs on two different relay teams for the Pirates.
Montano had the best finish of the day for the Pirate women, winning silver in the 50-yard freestyle. She also joined Cassidy Yanca, Sarah Glassman and Caitlyn Hilgenberg for fourth place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay races.
Yanca touched in seventh in the 500-yard free and Hilgenberg came in seventh in the 200-yard individual medley. Ava Carey finished 10th in the 500-yard freestyle event.
Soho earned his second-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley. Also scoring for VC in the event were Alex Tamayo in 12th and Kyle Quach in 13th.
Cameron Habib led four Pirates placing in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing in seventh. Merrick Giles won the B final to finish ninth while Nick Santander and Luigi Travi came in 11th and 13th, respectively.
Carlos Gonzalez placed seventh in the 500-yard freestyle and Fabian Moreno was 13th in the same event.
Travi, Soho, Giles and Habib touched in second place in the 400-yard medley relay while Giles, Soho, Santander and Habib were third in the 300-yard freestyle relay.
Aided by Ayden Jacobus' gold and Wyatt Dingman's bronze in the 3m diving last week, the Ventura men totaled 175 points for second behind Cuesta (270 points) and ahead of Bakersfield (133 points) in the nine-team field.
VC's women earned 115 total points Thursday, good for fourth behind Santa Monica (154 points) and ahead of Citrus (84 points).
The championships will continue on Friday April 19 at the Ventura Aquatic Center with preliminaries beginning at 9:00 am and the finals beginning at 4:00 pm.