The Ventura College men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened the 2017 season with the John Joseph / Western State Conference Pentathlon Friday at the Ventura Aquatic Center. Six Pirate men placed in the top-20 overall, led by Kevin Smallwood who placed fourth. Meanwhile, six VC women also placed six in the overall top-20 paced by Brittany Oliver in ninth place.
The meet featured all 10 women's and all seven men's teams from the conference competing in a non-scoring competition where each swimmer competed in each of five events, 100-yard butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, freestyle and individual medley.
For them men, Smallwood led in fourth place overall, followed by Jack Burleigh in sixth, David Peterson in seventh, Jack Pickett in 10th, Kaleb Rodarte in 11th, and Brian Hicks in 18th. Burleigh posted the fastest time in the 100-yard backstroke at 57.73 and Peterson was third in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 56.68. Smallwood finished third in the 100-yard breast stroke with a mark of 1:04.37 while Burleigh and Peterson tied for fourth in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing in 49.56.
Oliver led the Pirate women in ninth place overall, followed by Maria Petraitis in 10th, Alejendra Medina in 11th, Kaylene Lehr in 13th, Kelsey Golden in 19th, and Kaitlyn Peters in 20th. Paige Treloar-Ballard was the top Ventura finisher in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing seventh in a time of 1:07.34 with Maeve Flynn in eighth. Oliver paced the team in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing 10th in a time of 1:08.97. Petraitis was seventh in the 100-yard breast stroke at 1:18.92 with Peters coming in eighth. Peters also paced the team in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing eighth at 58.94 and Petraitis was seventh in the 100-yard IM, turning in a time of 1:09.71.
Ventura next travels to the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Friday Feb. 24 before hosting the first WSC scoring competition of the year on Friday Mar. 3 at the Ventura Aquatic Center at 11:00 am.