Cienega All-American Top 5 In 4 Different Events

On the waves of a spectacular freshman season, Pasadena City College women's swimmer Melissa Cienega etched her name on the All-American Top 16 Listings with top five times in four different events. Cienega was a double state gold medalist at the CCCAA State Championships in May and then was named the 2016-2017 PCC Women's Athlete of the Year for all sports. 

Cienega had the nation's second fastest mark in the 1,650-yard freestyle with her state-winning 17:46.85 time. Her state title swim in the 500 freestyle (5:03.83) was No. 4 overall as was her silver medal 200 freestyle performance (1:53.88).

She was fifth among U.S. community college swimmers in the 400 individual medley as her 4:39.30 time was both a South Coast Conference and PCC school record. As swimmers are limited to just three individual events at the state meet, Cienega swam her 400 IM at the conference finals and could not build on that time as she was able to do in her state swims.

Also making All-American in three events was Jocelyn Jo, who shared SCC Co-Swimmer of the Year honors with Cienega. Jo, a freshman, placed 10th in the nation in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.99), 11th in the 200 breaststroke (2:28.02) and was 12th in the 200 IM (2:12.37).

PCC head coach Terry Stoddard guided the pair, and combined with the success of the men's team he coached a total of 18 All-American swims.