The host Chabot College men's team had a strong effort at the Coast Conference Swimming and Diving Championships last week. The Glads men took third place with 495 points, and the Chabot women were 10th with 129 points.
Chabot coach Greg Kubicki gave the Glads high praise for their work ethic.
"In my 24 years here no team I've ever coached has outworked this one, men and women," Kubicki said.
A highlight was Chabot's close win in the men's 200-yard freestyle relay A Final with a time of 1 minute 27.04 seconds. The relay boasted freshman Alexander Mindanao, freshman Gavin Willits, sophomore Aaron Ly, and freshman Gavin Martinez. The Glads, seeded fourth, upended Las Positas in a close finish. Chabot is seeded 10th in the state in the 200 free relay, and Las Positas is seeded 11th.
Overall, Chabot qualified three men's relays, 200 free, 800 free and 400 free, for the 3C2A State Championships at Orange Coast College May 2-4.
Chabot sophomore sensation Riley Pearson qualified for state in three individual events after lowering his times from last season, in the 200 free, 500 free and 1,650 free.
Pearson was second in the 1650 free A Final (17:26.88). dropping about 40 seconds off his Coast time from last year. He was third in the 500 free (4:53.33) and third in the 400 IM (4:27.95), each with significant improvement over last season.
The Glads' trio of Willits (21.81), Martinez (22.16) and Mindanao (22.19) impressively finished 1-2-3 in the men's 50 free finals. Ly (22.52) was fifth. Willits and Martinez went 1-2 in the 100 free final, with times of 48.64 and 49.29.
What was key to the Glads' big showing? They did it the old-fashioned way.
"I think the first thing is a tremendous amount of work," Kubicki said, mentioning the team's underwater work on dives and turns.
The Chabot men were third in the 400 medley relay with a team of Martinez, Willits, Mindanao, and Ly, in a time of 3:42.09, and second in the 400 free relay with a team of Willits, Ly, Pearson, and Martinez, in a time of 3:14.52.
Chabot was fifth in the 200 medley relay (1:45.81) with a team of Martinez, Raul Herrera, Felix Omaque, and Jacob Forsdick.
Mindanao was third in the 100 butterfly (54.08). Willits was fifth in the 100 breast (1:01.15), and Martinez was second in the 100 back (56.61).
Chabot was also second behind Las Positas in the 800-free relay (7:20.62) with a team of Mindanoa, Willits, Ly, and Pearson.
Mindanao and Felix Omaque were third and fifth, respectively, in the 200 fly, with times of 2:06.23 and 2:22.74.
Looking ahead to the state meet, Kubicki says the "job is not done. We've got to go down there and do our thing again." He added that he wants his competitors to swim for each other and use the same spirit and commitment in individual events as they do in relays.