The women's swim and dive schedule is off and running and the Orange Empire Conference is shaping up to be a battle between Riverside City College and Orange Coast College. The two squads have split wins at the first two meets of the season.
Orange Coast opened the season by beating Riverside City at the Golden West Invitational two weeks ago and RCC returned the favor at the OEC meet at Orange Coast this past Friday.
Riverside City has a handful of stars that should compete for individual conference championships at the end of the year. Lindsey Habegger won both the 50 Freestyle and 100 Freestyle this past week at OCC while finishing second in the 200 Freestyle. The Tigers also have one of the best divers in the state as Lorelai Carney won on both the 1-meter and 3-meter platforms this past week. A week earlier, Lauren Loffelmacher won in the 200 Individual Medley at Golden West while Pilar Lara won both the 50 Backstroke and 100 Backstroke.
Orange Coast is no stranger to podiums as the Pirates have captured the last two state titles, six state championships since 2010 and 20 state titles since 1984. The Pirates again look solid, wining at Golden West when they captured four events and finishing second to RCC last week when they won seven events. Orange Coast has a number of athletes that should compete for medals at the end of the season. Yuuri Yoshikawa won both the 100 and 200 Breaststroke this past week and Giselle Quinones was a two-time winner in the 200 Freestyle and 1,650 Freestyle. Alaire Thomas won the 200 Fly in both meets this season while Delaney Lewellyn won the 100 Backstroke at OCC. The Pirates also picked up a win in the 100 Backstroke with Sude Yilmazturk, who sat out the previous week.
The race for third place should be a great battle as Fullerton, Cypress, Golden West and Saddleback all have a number of individuals with a chance at standing on the podium at the end of the year.
If there is a dark horse it may be Fullerton. The Hornets finished in third at the latest meet and had 16 competitors in the pool. Fullerton had a win from Anoushka Jaievsky in the 200 Freestyle at OCC and second place finishes from Amanda Ellerbroek (100 Freestyle), Charley Jackson (100 Breaststroke, 200 Breaststroke), Neida Torres (500 Freestyle) and Estelle Zhou (50 Freestyle).
Cypress had just eight swimmers at the latest meet but still managed 259 points, which was a solid number. The Chargers have one of the more dominating individuals in the conference in Nicole Maslog, who won both the 100 Fly and 500 Freestyle this past week. In addition, Marisol Narvaez finished in the top-5 in three separate events.
Golden West has a handful of athletes with a chance at the podium at the end of the year after solid finishes at OCC last week. Chelsey Ruiz finished in third in the 200 Fly while Elizabeth Gendron was third in the 200 Breaststroke.
Saddleback had just five athletes in the pool this past week and actually did quite well despite the low numbers. Macie Schiepp had the best finish of the day for the Bobcats when she finished second in the 200 Fly. In addition, Saddleback had a handful of other top-5 finishes as Malia Abrahamian was a third in the 1,650 Freestyle and Sophia Guntrip finished fourth in both the 100 Fly and 100 Breaststroke.
All of the Orange Empire Conference will be back in the pool on March 25 at Riverside City College.