The VC men's and women's swimming and diving teams produced more strong performances Saturday to conclude the Western State Conference Championships at the Ventura Aquatic Center. Ella Montano claimed her second gold medal of the meet Saturday while Nick Santander won silver. Michael Soho and Luigi Travi each claimed bronze medals Saturday to lead the VC men to a second place team finish. The Pirate women came in fourth in the championships.
Montano won the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:20.12 and finished nearly 13 seconds ahead of second place. AnnMarie Patterson scored for the Pirates with a 11th-place finish in the same event.
Cassidy Yanca touched in sixth in the 1650 freestyle followed by Isabella Palacios in 11th place. Meanwhile, Ava Carey was sixth in the 200-yard backstroke with Caitlyn Hilgenberg in ninth and Patterson in 13th.
VC's 400-yard freestyle relay team of Yanca, Sarah Glassman, Carey and Montano placed fifth.
Santander had the best individual finish for the Ventura men as he claimed his second silver medal of the championships in the 200-yard backstroke. Travi came in right behind in third while Kyle Quach was eighth.
Soho led four Pirate finalists with a second-place performance in the 200-yard breaststroke with Alex Tamayo coming in sixth, Jessie Zepeda finishing ninth and Sammie Abarca touching in 13th.
Cameron Habib placed fourth in the 100-yard freestyle and Merrick Giles came in sixth. Meanwhile, Carlos Gonzalez was sixth in the 1650-yard free and Fabian Moreno was 10th in the 200-yard butterfly.
Santander, Travi, Giles and Habib teamed up for a second-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay to close the meet.
The Pirate men totaled 586 points for a strong second place finish as a team behind Cuesta's 879 points. Bakersfield was third with 419, just ahead of Los Angeles Valley with 418. Ventura's head coach Mary Giles was named the WSC Men's Swimming Coach of the Year following the championships.
VC's women were fourth overall with 375 points, just behind Santa Monica, who totaled 380 points. Santa Barbara claimed the WSC title with 854 points and LA Valley was second with 550.
Ventura will now await the assignments to the 3C2A State Championships to be held Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4 at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.