The women’s swim team had a memorable day as it hosted its first home meet, winning first place by 39 points on Friday, March 28, at San Marcos High School.
City College won the third Western State Conference match with 164 points and placed within the top five of each event. Cuesta College took second place with 125 points as the other three schools struggled to pass a two-digit number.
“I thought we swam really well collectively as a team today,” said Brian Roth, head coach. “Some girls posted their best times, or close to their best times, which is really encouraging.”
The Vaqueros won the first event of the meet. Autumn Lovett, Kaili Faust, Rachelle Visser and Janina Schulz won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:57.42.
Visser, who swam the butterfly leg of the relay, said winning the first event helps map out the rest of the days success.
“It’s pretty important; you just want to do good for the whole team,” said Visser. “It also helps for the events that are coming up and gives you confidence.”
Visser made use of her confidence as she won the 200-yard IM with a personal best of 2:13.73. She said the IM is one of her favorites because it contains all the strokes.
“Every 50 [yards] is like a sprint,” Visser said. “It makes you really tired, but it’s fun.”
Visser went on to win first place in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:24.69.
The next person to touch the wall was nearly 25 second later.
Kaili Faust did some sprinting of her own and placed second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.80. Faust said she is more of a sprinter than a distance swimmer.
Faust also placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke and, despite being sick, swam a personal best of 1:10.62.
“I felt terrible today and I actually plan on going a lot faster,” said Faust.
The race that required more regulation than sprinting was the 1000-yard freestyle, where Lauren Shackelford won third place with a time of 12:43.05.
“You have to pace yourself and not use your legs as much,” Shackelford said. “The last 200, that’s when you pick it up.”
Rocio Fesembeck, who placed third in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle, said her quickened pace was because of an outside force.
“It’s pretty cool having it [the swim meet] finally at home,” said Rocio. “Everyone that’s here; it makes us go faster.”
Ryan Byrne, athletic director, showed support for the Vaqueros as they made a part of City College history.
“Hosting our first women’s swim meet in the history of the college is just awesome,” Byrne said. “We’ve done everything that we can to make sure it’s a class event, really a class program all-around.”
The next swim meet is all day, April 4, at the Pasadena Invitational.
