DVC Swimmers Dominate at the Big 8 Championship.
It’s that time of year again. The Diablo Valley College swimming team hosted the Big 8 Conference Championship in spectacular fashion. From the event that took place April 18-20, 25 members of the swimming team qualified for the CCCAA State Championship in East Los Angeles, with two members of the diving team qualifying also. The Vikings went on to win both the Men’s and Women’s title, breaking a number of meet records in the process.
“Southern California teams are very strong but I still think we will be in the hunt for both men and women events,” said Head coach Rick Millington. “The Big 8 Championship was a great meet for us.”
The team dominated early with a strong percentage of the team swimming their best times, while some went on to make history. Swimmer Montana Randall broke the Big 8 Championship meet record in the 100-yard butterfly with a blazing time of 49:32.
“I’m very pleased with my time but I want to go one second faster for state,” said Randall. “I always wanted to get the team record and one of my coaches, Donny, encourages me to break it every day.” Randall will go into practice with the intention of primarily working on his technique and working on accelerating into and out of his turns for the state meet.
Another top performer was Lee Ward who broke the meet record in the 200-yard freestyle.
“I felt relieved because I finally broke that barrier of getting under that 1:40,” said Ward. To him, breaking that record didn’t mean much. What really made him happy was the fact that he had accomplished the personal goal that he had set.
Coaches were very pleased with the effort shown by the Vikings. Going into the last day of the meet, the Women’s team was ahead of the pack by 29 team points, pulling ahead of their conference rivals Santa Rosa City College.
“Thursday we got off to the start that we needed to,” assistant coach Zach Roberts said. “Friday during both sessions, I would say that we did outstanding. We had some really good swims.”
Friday, Women’s swimmer Shaila Yoder set a state record in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 29.6 seconds. One strong aspect about this year’s team is that it is not only a team, but a family.
“It’s like high school all over again,” Yoder said. “The coaches make this experience so fun and so enjoyable. I really can’t thank them enough.”
Sure it helps if you feel great before the race, but once you’re in the actual water, there’s only one source of support that will help guide you through your event: your team. Men’s Captain Michael Billey is certainly the backbone of the team. Although he didn’t do as well as he had hoped, he still provided an enormous amount of support to his teammates, cheering them on every step of the way.
“I felt I did okay. It was the last swim of the season for me,” Billey said. “It was more about cheering my team on and being a good captain for them.”
Taylor Henry, the top seeded women’s 50-yard freestyle competitor, placed first during the meet. “I did pretty well, it wasn’t my best meet but I’m very happy with my results at this point of the season,” Henry said. It’s worth noting that Henry was a little tired heading into the meet. Now she has her sights on making her presence known at the State Championship.
Swimmer Riley Hagan ended the Men’s 100-yard freestyle by taking first place.
“I felt good out there,” said Hagan. “The way I swim my 100, I kind of see where everyone else is after the first two and a half laps and speed up based on that.” His goal for state is to have a better start to the race while keeping his strong finish.
Next stop: East LA for the CCCAA State Championship.