Cienega Wins 500 Freestyle, Team Takes 5th At 18th Pasadena Invite
Last year, Melissa Cienega shattered the PCC school record in the 500-yard freestyle on her way to winning the state title in that event. Swimming under the weather at the 18th Pasadena Invitational on April 6-7, Cienega snapped a 17-year-old meet record in that event. Her time of 5 minutes, 12.03 seconds beat the old mark of Chaffey's Ati Yuliani of 5:12.51 in 2001. However, the invite time was far slower than her freshman best school record mark of 5:03.83.
Edit: In a historical research, Cienega did not break the Pasadena Invite time record, set by Alex Peters of Saddleback in 2008 (5:02.70).
Last year, Melissa Cienega shattered the PCC school record in the 500-yard freestyle on her way to winning the state title in that event. Swimming under the weather at the 18th Pasadena Invitational on April 6-7, Cienega swam 5:12.03, the fastest invite time at PCC since 2008, to win the 500 freestyle However, the invite time was far slower than her freshman best school record mark of 5:03.83.
Cienega settled for second place in the 200 freestyle (1:57.05), lagging again behind her school record mark of 1:53.88 set last year. The Lancers finished in fifth place overall out of 15 teams with 268 points. Orange Coast won the team title.
Overall, five meet records were set on the women's side (13 overall records combined with the men's events) including:
Orange Coast, 200 medley relay, 1:47.62, old record 1:49.37 in 2013
swimmers: Lauren Weins, Meghan Cluck, Kennedy Hood, Lilli Lindgard
Anita Alvarez, Diablo Valley, 400 individual medley, 4:39.04, old record 4:39.70 in 2015
Weins, OCC, 100 backstroke, 57.23, old record 58.18 in 2015
Alvarez, DVC, 200 breaststroke, 2:23.91, old record 2:29.11 in 2015
*Ashley Tse, Mt. San Antonio, same race, 2:24.20 took second
Alvarez was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in 2016 as a synchronized swimmer.
Lancer sophomore Jocelyn Jo took third in both the 400 individual medley at 4:54.80 and 200 breaststroke in 2:30.04 (she set a school record in that event last year in 2:28.02). Jo was fourth in each of the 200 IM (2:16.30) and 100 breaststroke (1:09.48). She placed 10th in the 100 butterfly in 1:04.92. Maryjane Martinez was 11th in the 200 butterfly in 2:46.91. Sharon Perez grabbed 10th in the 50 freestyle in 26.25. Finally, Lindsay Jensen was 15th in the 1,650 freestyle in 22:07.5.
Coach Terry Stoddard's Lancers will compete at the South Coast Conference Swimming Championships on April 19-21 at Mt. San Antonio College.