Lim, Li lead Pirates to fourth overall at State Swim Finals
SANTA ROSA -- With six top-three performances, the Orange Coast College men's swim/dive team earned a fourth-place team finish at the 3C2A Swim/Dive State Championships, hosted by Santa Rosa Junior College, this past weekend.
Coast earned 379.5 points over the three-day event and were topped only by state-champion Sierra College (443), American River (434) and Mt. San Antonio (417). Finishing out the top-10 after the Pirates included Riverside (324), Cuesta (224), Bakersfield (221), Diablo Valley (220.5), Golden West (211) and Ohlone (134).
Pirate standouts Evan Lim and Kevin Li each earned silver medals for their individual medley performances.
Lim went stroke for stroke with RCC's Zeke Serrano in the 100 IM and it took a state-record performance of 50.67 from Serrano to best Lim's time of 50.74, which also topped the previous state-best time.
In the 400 IM, Li took on the best of the best and finished with a time of 4:03.95 for the silver medal, just over 2 seconds faster than bronze medalist Gavin Roberts of Mt. SAC (4:06.04).
Two other OCC individual swimmers -- Gavin McNeal and Kaua Mota -- earned bronze medals for their outstanding performances in their events.
McNeal battled the best in the 1,650 freestyle and earned the bronze with a time of 16:04.69. In the 100 butterfly, Mota touched the wall third overall with a solid time of 48.72.
In the 400 freestyle relay, Lim, Mota, Darius Walach and Ryan Xu earned the bronze with a time of 3:04.35, just edging out Mt. SAC (3:05.34) for the bronze medal.
The 800 free relay saw Walach, McNeal, Mota and Lim edge out rival GWC for the bronze with a time of 6:55.51. The Rustlers (6:56.05) settled for fourth place.
Complete results of the 3C2A Swim/Dive State Championships can be found HERE.
TOP-8 FINISHES FOR THE PIRATES THIS WEEKEND ...
200 FLY -- Li ... 4th ... 1:52.83
500 FREE -- McNeal ... 5th ... 4:36.07
200 Medley Relay -- Lim, Mota, Xu, Brenden Bellavia ... 5th ... 1:32.54
100 FREE -- Mota ... 6th ... 45.8
200 BREAST -- Walach ... 6th ... 2:06.82
200 Free Relay -- (Lim, Mota, Xu, Bellavia) ... 7th ... 1:23.86
200 IM -- Li ... 7th ... 1:53.95
100 BREAST -- Lim ...7th ... 57.05
200 FLY -- Oscar Cruz ... 8th ... 1:57.53
200 IM -- Lim ... 8th ... 1:54.81
50 FREE -- Xu ... 8th ... 21.03
