Tiger Women Win OEC #2, Men Take Third
Riverside City College competed in its second Orange Empire Conference Meet of the year Friday and saw multiple top-five performances. The Tiger women won the event with a total of 538 points, while the men took third with 373 team points.
WOMEN
Jessie Nelson won the 400-yard IM, shaving almost four seconds off her previous best to post a time of five minutes, 0.45 seconds. Nicole Robertson wasn't far behind, taking third in 5:14.70.
Nelson also finished runner-up in the 100-yard breaststroke, touching the wall in 1:14.22, and in the 200-yard breast with a time of 2:37.66.
Riverside put three in the top four in the 500-yard free, with Annabella Storar taking the top spot with a time of 5:33.04. Jaeden Johnson touched the wall in 5:54.06 for third, while Nicole Lis rounded out the top four with a time of 6:07.15.
Storar also won the 200-yard fly with a time of 2:26.90 and took second in the 200-yard free (2:04.18), followed by Johnson in fourth (2:11.21).
Samantha Thomas clocked in at 26.53 seconds to take fourth in the 50-yard free, while Robertson took second in the 100-yard fly with a time of 1:07.80. Robertson also finished third in the 200-yard back (2:28.31), while Thomas grabbed third in the 100-yard free with a time of 58.83 seconds.
In the longest event of the day, the 1650-yard free, Abigail Ruiz took second with a time of 20:27.88.
The 400-yard free relay team (Thomas, Nelson, Storar, Johnson) took second with a time of 3:58.17. The 400-yard medley relay team (Robertson, Nelson, Storar, Thomas) took third in 4:32.28.
MEN
On the men's side, Zehiah Serrano won the 100-yard free, touching in 46.41 seconds, while Yousef Nahali took fourth in 48.23 seconds.
Nahali was just .03 seconds off a first-place finish in the 50-yard free, posting a time of 21.21 to take second. Serrano wasn't too far behind in fifth at 21.57, while Kevin Mora touched the wall in 22.66 seconds to grab eighth place.
Serrano posted a runner-up finish in the 100-yard fly with a time of 52.66 seconds, while
Gerardo Garcia led three Tigers in the top 10 of the 500-yard free, taking sixth in 5:08.59. Lennon Franklin followed in 5:16.43 (seventh), while Darian Thompson posted a time of 5:26.80 for 10th. Garcia also finished third in the 200-yard fly with a time of 2:02.07.
Franklin took second in the 100-yard back, touching in 56.51 seconds – which was two full seconds faster than his previous best time.
Nathan Dulkis grabbed fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.42, followed by Garcia in 1:06.27 for sixth.
The 400-yard free relay team (Mora, Franklin, Nahali, Serrano) clocked in at 3:12.75 to take second, while the 400-yard medley team (Lennon, Garcia, Serrano, Nahali) grabbed third with a time of 3:47.82.
The Tigers take a week off before hosting the Riverside Invitational on Saturday, April 6, at 10 a.m. as their final tune-up before the conference championship meet.