Women's Swim Sweeps SCC Dual Meet At LBCC

The Pasadena City College women's swim team keeps posting event victories and in the process the Lancers are maintaining a high spot in the South Coast Conference dual meet standings race. PCC swept a double dual meet against Rio Hondo, 124-92, and host Long Beach City, 109-94, on Friday. Pasadena is 3-1 in SCC meets.

In the conference meet, Melissa Cienega posted three event victories in the 200-yard freestyle (2:00.10), 200 backstroke (2:20.23), and 100 butterfly (1:02.49). Jocelyn Jo also won three, the 100 (1:11.79) and 200 breaststroke (2:34.25) and the 200 individual medley (2:22.60). Lindsay Jensen placed first in two events, winning the 1,000 freestyle in 13:18.69 and the 500 freestyle in 6:12.61. Anais Hacobian was second in her three events-50 freestyle, 200 backstroke and 100 butterfly.

On Mar. 11 at the 12th Mariner Invitational meet at College of Marin, Jo swam 30.99 seconds to win the 50 breaststroke, the second fastest time in PCC history in the event (record is 30.62 by Arolyn Basham in 2014). She also won the 100 IM in 1:09.99. Cienega scored a trio of freestyle wins, the 50 (25.59), the 100 (55.95), and the 200 (1:57.76). Hacobian won the 50 backstroke in 29.99 and Jensen was victorious in the 500 freestyle (6:13.25). 

In a 110-52 loss in the team's annual non-conference dual meet at Diablo Valley College on Mar. 10, Cienega won the 200 freestyle (1:58.94) and then scored an explosive 5:18.11 to win the 500 freestyle, the third fastest in PCC history. Jo hit the wall first in the 400 IM (5:04.62), which is second on the all-time list in an event that has only been participated in by women competitors during the past few seasons. She won the 200 breaststroke as well in 2:35.94. 

"We don't have a large team so winning the conference meets by shorter margins requires us to get those first place and second place swims," said PCC head coach Terry Stoddard. "Melissa and Jocelyn clearly have been keeping the pace for us, but we're getting some big swims out of Lindsay and Anais too. Each of them excel in different strokes and that allows us to grab points in a variety of events."

On Friday, Mar. 24, the Lancers travel to state meet host East Los Angeles College for a SCC double dual against the Huskies and Cerritos College. Meet time is 12:30 p.m.