Men's Swimming & Diving

Men’s Swimming and Diving Team Heads North to Dive into 2017 Season

Posted: Feb 04, 2017

By John M. Sherrard

(Walnut, CA) With a trip up to Northern California and a goal to repeat as South Coast Conference champions, the 2017 Mt. SAC Men's Swimming and Diving team are set to have another banner season.

Winners of the last three consecutive SCC titles, the Mounties return eight swimmers from the 2016 team, seven of who were conference finalists.

Four sophomores were CCCAA State Championship qualifiers and will be competing in the following events this year – Bryan Calderon (100/200 breaststroke, 400 IM), Kyle Chang (200 IM, 200 freestyle, 200 backstroke) and Renen Devito (100/200/500 freestyle). Sophomore Esteban Martinez, who also qualified for state, competes in diving.

The three sophomores that were conference finalists were: Ashkon Dejbakhsh (50/100 free), Omar Heblos (100/200 butterfly) and David Limon (100/200 breaststroke, 100 fly).

The 24-member team will compete in its first event on Friday at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill.

"Diablo Valley is one of the top teams in the state," Mt. SAC Swimming and Diving coach Marc Ruh said. "We like to start the season off with a tough meet. We are only three weeks into our training, we are taking on a top team after a fair amount of travel, and there is no telling what the weather will be like up there (usually cold and raining), so it's a perfect way to kick off the season."

The team endured a seven-hour bus ride on Thursday traveling to Diablo Valley College which will no doubt help with team bonding.

"It's the perfect way to kick off our season and we are really looking forward to getting to know one another and how much compete we have as a team," added Ruh, who was named SCC coach of the year last season.

The following freshmen on the team will also add an impact for the team:

Spencer Chlebowski (Backstroke and distance free), Roosevelt HS (Corona); Mathew Delgado (Breaststroke), La Serna HS; Alex Neoh (Fly, IM), Walnut HS; Alec "Vinny" Rivera (sprint freestyle), Chino Hills HS; Gavin Reyes (sprint free), Ayala HS; Stephan Jacobo-Martinez (freestyle, butterfly and backstroke), Montclair HS and Zach Justus (distance free and diving), Bonita HS.

The team will have the following week off from competition and then kick off the conference schedule on Friday and Saturday, February 17-18 at Pasadena City College with the South Coast Conference Pentathlon in swimming. The diving will be held on Saturday at El Camino College.

"We are really looking forward to another very tough and exciting conference season this year," Ruh said. "We have great schools in the SCC and every week will be a new challenge."