The Ventura College men's and women's swim teams had a solid showing at the CCCAA State Championships held at East Los Angeles College Thursday through Saturday. The Pirate men earned 106 points, good for a ninth place finish overall among the 44 participating teams, the program's 19th straight Top-10 performance. Meanwhile the Pirate women scored 27 points to place 24th of the 44 teams.
Marcus Rodarte (three individual places and three relay places) and Austin Hammond (two individual places, three relay places) led the way for the VC men and Delani Clark (one individual place, two relays) led the effort for the Pirate women.
On day one of the three-day event, Rodarte, Derek Krzyski, Hammond and James Heckman got off to a strong start with a ninth place finish in the 200 yard freestyle relay. Rodarte followed that up with a 12th place mark in the 200 yard individual medley. The Pirate women also got on the board on Thursday when Raquel Rodriguez, Mikala Cvijanovich, Paige Treloar-Ballard and Clark came in 13th in the 400 yard medley relay.
The second day had Clark coming in 12th in the 400 yard individual medley and Hammond placed 16th in the same event for the men. Rodarte had his best individual finish of the meet in eighth place in the 100 yard backstroke. The women placed 11th in the 800 yard freestyle relay with Treloar-Ballard, Cheyanne Irigoyen, Rodriguez and Allison Olney. Meanwhile the VC men's team of Hammond, Krzyski, Heckman and Rodarte came in seventh in the same event.
On Saturday Rodarte earned individual points in his third event of the championships, finishing 11th in the 200 yard backstroke with Heckman following just behind in 13th place. Hammond had the highest individual finish for a Pirate, earning seventh place in the 200 yard butterfly. The women's team of Olney, Clark, Rodriguez and Irigoyen concluded the meet with a 16th place finish in the 400 yard freestyle relay while the men cemented their Top-10 finish with a 9th place finish in the relay behind Rodarte, Krzyski, Heckman and Hammond.