In the final race of the Western State Conference Championships Saturday in Santa Maria, VC's 400-yard freestyle relay team of David Peterson, Kaleb Rodarte, Jack Burleigh and Jack Pickett blew away the competition, winning the conference title by four seconds. That win capped a stellar weekend for the Pirates' men's and women's swimming and diving teams during which the men ran away with the competition for their fourth straight WSC title, and the women finished a strong runner up.
The team championship for the VC men was also their 14th in the past 15 years. First-year head coach Mary Giles and assistant coach Steve Reardon were selected as the WSC Men's Swim Coaching staff of the year.
The relay gold for the Pirate men was the team's third victory of the final day of the championships. Thomas Bunker swam the 1650-yard freestyle in 16:50.12 for conference gold, and Peterson posted a mark of 1:58.04 to take first in the 200-yard butterfly.
Meanwhile, Ventura had numerous other solid performances, leading them to 756.5 total points in the meet, 247.5 points ahead of second place Santa Monica with 509. LA Valley was third with 504 points.
Kyle Goodrich was third in the 1650 free and Liam Hicks came in ninth. In the 200-yard backstroke, the Hicks brothers scored again with Brian Hicks placing second and Liam coming in seventh. Burleigh was runner-up in the 200-yard freestyle with Pickett coming in fourth. VC also scored big in the 200-yard breast stroke with four placers, Rodarte in second, Kevin Smallwood in fourth, Roger Escalante in 10th and Alex Anderson coming in 14th.
In the 200-yard fly, Derek Krzyski finished fourth with Brandon Haase and Mitchell Caldwell finishing ninth and 13th, respectively.
The Ventura women capped off their strong performance with a solid runner-up finish in the 10-team field. Santa Barbara won the meet with 635 points and the Pirates rbought home 537 points for second. Hancock was third with 474 and Cuesta fourth at 459.
Brittany Oliver got the final day started right with a second place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle, followed by Sabrina Cherfane in fifth and Christina Jimenez in 14th. Brittany Camp came in 14th in the 200-yard backstroke and Ylva Ostlin scored at 15th. Kaitlyn Peters was fifth in the 100-yard freestyle while Kelsey Golden finished 11th.
In the 200-yard breast stroke, VC had four scorers as Maria Petraitis was fourth, Kaylene Lehr finished seventh, Reginae Maturino was eighth and Camp was 12th. In the 200-yard butterfly, Paige Treloar-Ballard finished fourth, Maeve Flynn came in fifth, and Alejendra Medina was seventh.
VC finished the championships with a third place finish for the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Oliver, Petraitis, Treloar-Ballard and Peters.
Both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams will finish the season May 4-6 at the CCCAA State Championships at East Los Angeles College.