The Pirates' men's swimming and diving team took first place at the Western State Conference No. 1 meet at Citrus College in Glendora on Friday. Lester Wright continued his prowess in the 1m and 3m diving competitions while Marcel Hurtubise, Johnny Van Mannakes, Collin Spargur and Arturo Medina all turned in individual gold medal performances. The Pirate women came in fourth place overall led by the first place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
The Pirate men totaled 112 points to win the meet, followed by Bakersfield (85), LA Valley (33) and Citrus (1). Ventrua's women's team earned 30 points, behind Santa Barbara (98), Bakersfield (48), and LA Valley (43), and ahead of Citrus (21).
In sweeping the diving events once again, Wright bested his own school records. He earned 406.25 points in the 1m competition before scoring 361.65 points in the 3m event. Roman Becher came in second in both diving events.
Hurtubise won the 100-yard butterfly in 55.54 and Spargur swam the 100-yard freestyle in 49.46, also good for first. Van Mannakes won the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 5:22.54 while Medina finished ahead of the pack in the 100-yard breast stroke in 1:04.34.
Van Mannakes also won silver in the 1,000-yard free while Ethan Enquist was third and Julian Larios was sixth. Spargur earned silver in the 50-yard free with Brandyn Robles winning bronze, and Medina was runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley, followed closely by Hurtubise, Brayden Lauritzen, Christian Foster and Becher in third through sixth, respectively. Robles captured bronze in the 100-yard free and Jake Peters was sixth. Enquist, Becher and Foster finished third, fourth and fifth in the 100-yard backstroke while Lauritzen and Owen Pedraza were fourth and seventh, respectively, in the 100-yard breast stroke. Peters and Foster were fifth and seventh in the 200-yard free and Larios came in sixth in the 500-yard free.
In the relays for the men, Enquist, Medina, Hurtubise and Spargur captured the 200-yard medley relay, and the quartet of Lauritzen, Van Mannakes, Peters and Robles was second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
The VC women's 200-yard freestyle relay team of Raylynn Lipsky, Yaneli Calderon, Caitlin Burditt and Sierra Cameron captured the gold in a time of 1:49.27. Burditt was also second in the 200-yard free followed by Drew Reyes in fifth, while Cameron and Lipsky were third and fourth, respectively, in the 50-yard free. Ary Martinez finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly and was fifth in the 200-yard individual medley. Lipsky and Burditt came in fourth and fifth in the 100-yard free and Calderon finished fourth in the 1m diving and Stefanie Covarrubias placed fifth. Reyes was seventh in the 100-yard backstroke.
The Ventura divers head to the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Thursday Feb. 20, and the full swim teams next travel to WSC Preview at Cuesta College on Friday Feb. 29.