The Ventura College men's and women's swimming and diving teams competed at the 34th Annual Mt. SAC Invitational, with the divers competing on Thursday and the swimmers making the trek to Walnut on Saturday. Deon Crilly posted a pair of silver medal performances in diving while Cooper Fuchs led the swimmers with an individual second and third place, respectively. Alli Hopkins and Adrianna Bese each had individual seventh place finished to lead the VC women.
The Pirate men totaled 227 points and finished eighth in the 20-team field despite swimming just one day of the three-day event plus diving on Thursday. Crilly came in second in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions while Izaiah Martinez was eighth in both diving heights and Rawley Mathis placed 10th and seventh, respectively, in the events. Fuchs claimed silver in the 200-yard backstroke with a mark of 2:00.16 and bronze in the 100-yard freestyle, and Marcel Hurtubise was seventh in the 200-yard butterfly and 16th in the 200-yard breast stroke. Anthony Amezcua led three Pirate place-winners in the 1650-yard freestyle, coming in eighth, and Hunter Massey and Ethan Enquist finished in ninth and 11th place, respectively. Johnny Ditlof was sixth in the 400-yard individual medley, followed by Frank Lopez in 14th place. Lopez also placed 12th in the 200-yard fly and Tobias Hynes was 16th in the 100-yard free.
The men's 800-yard freestyle relay team of Hurtubise, Garrett Gallagher, Hynes and Fuchs won bronze and the same quartet finished sixth in the 400-yard medley relay.
VC's women's team placed 11th of the 20 competing teams with 115 total points. The 400-yard medley relay team of Gracelyn De La Cruz, Bese, Hopkins and Kaitlin Reagan came in fourth while De la Cruz, Caitlin Burditt, Ary Martinez and Hopkins also placed fourth in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
Hopkins had the her best individual finish at seventh place in the 200-yard freestyle and she also came in 10th in the 100-yard free. Bese claimed a seventh place award in the 400-yard individual medley and also placed 10th in the 200-yard breast stroke. Martinez was eighth in the 400-yard IM, De La Cruz came in 12th in the 200-yard back stroke, and Reagan was 16th in the 100-yard free.
Ventura hosts the first Western State Conference scoring competition of the season on Friday March 1 at 11:00 am at the Ventura Aquatic Center.