By John M. Sherrard
With 17 teams entered in the three-day event, the Mounties had a 15-point lead over Orange Coast College heading into the final event, the 4 x 200 freestyle relay.
However, a disqualification occurred as one of the Mountie swimmers left early and they settled for second place with 623.5 points. OCC took first place with 645.5. San Diego Mesa finished a distant third with 499 points.
"I would take that mistake and lesson-learned now anytime over a win now and mistake like that later in the season," Mt. SAC coach Marc Ruh said. "A very valuable experience for us."
OCC was leading the race, with the Mounties in second and all they had to do was finish a clean race for a first-place finish in the Invitational.
Distance swimmer Spencer Chlebowski was the lone Mountie to claim a first-place finish in the Invitational in the 1,650 freestyle. The freshman finished with a time of 17:52.42, 12 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
Mt. SAC Freshman Vinny Rivera finished in sixth in the event.
The Mounties had 13 swimmers finish in the top five out of the 17 individual events with two thirds, one fourth and one fifth in the four relay races.
Mt. SAC, however, with the lone winner was a factor in the meet due to its large amount of swimmers in the program.
"Last year and this year we have had a deep team," said sophomore sprinter Ashcon Dejbakhsh, who swam 7 individual events.
"Some of the schools like Pasadena (City College) or Long Beach (City College) will have swimmers that are faster than us but won't have as many. So when you're building up towards that relay, whoever has the most of the fastest swimmers in those events will have earned the most points."
"This meet was important because you could see other teams around the state. Even though it's only the beginning of the season you still have an idea of what you might expect at state (championships), especially in the relays."
The only second-place finisher for the Mounties was Bryan Calderon in the 50-yard breaststroke. The sophomore finished just .88 behind first place.
Calderon swam in seven individual events plus two relays, placing fifth in the 200 breast, 6th in the 100 individual medley and 8th in the 100 breast.
Two swimmers totaled big team points for the Mounties.
Kyle Chang, who entered seven individual events and four relays, totaled 86 points in those individual events. The sophomores' best finish was a third in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:05.31. He also was 4th in the 50 back and 5th in the 200 IM and 200 freestyle.
Chlebowski finished with 69 points with his first-place finish in the 1,650, and collecting points in six of his seven individual swims. He placed fifth in both the 200 backstroke and 500 free.
In the diving events, freshman Zach Justus was fifth in the 1 meter and eighth in the 3 meter, while sophomore Esteban Martinez placed seventh in the 3 meter and ninth in the 1 meter event.
Mt. SAC will swim at Pasadena City College this Friday, with L.A. Trade Tech and PCC in a South Coast Conference meet.
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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630.