Chun, Mt. SAC Break Long-TIme Records To Win SCC Men's Swim/Dive Championship
Mt. San Antonio College broke two long-standing conference records and continued its dominance in winning its ninth team title in the last 10 seasons at the South Coast Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships held April 17-19 at the East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium.
It was the program's third straight crown, and 13th championship overall, all since 2003. The Mounties won 15 of the 21 events, eclipsing the thousand mark in team points, finishing with 1,002 to defeat second-place Long Beach CC by an impressive 281.5 points.
Ray Chun shattered a 25-year-old SCC record to win the 100-yard freestyle in 45.56 seconds, beating the 1993 mark of 45.58 set by Golden West's Derek Gibb. Chun then swam as the anchor on the Mounties' 400 free relay champion squad that erased the oldest record left in the conference record books of 32 years in a blistering 3:06.37. Golden West, now a member of the Orange Empire Conference, set the mark of 3:06.56 in 1993.
Chun was joined by Gavin Roberts, Michael Dibello, and Luke Marsden in the record relay that closed the 3-day meet.
Named SCC Swimmer of the Year, Chun also was the anchor with Dibello, Marsden and Ethan Lopez in the program's third SCC record of the meet taking the gold in the 200 medley relay in 1:32.18. Ironically, Chun served as anchor as well on the previous record in the event set last year by Mt. SAC in 1:33.51, a mark at the time that snapped a 27-year-old South Coast record set by Golden West.
Mt. SAC won all five relays as Chun (50, 100 free), Dibello (100 and 200 individual medley), Michael Lu (100 and 200 backstroke), and Jack Painton (500 and 1,650 free) were all double event champions.
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS: 1. Mt. San Antonio 1,002, 2. Long Beach City 720.5, 3. Cerritos 414.5, 4. El Camino 407, 5. Pasadena City 300, 6. Chaffey 274, 7. Rio Hondo 179.
Mt. SAC nearly broke another record, but fell .02 short of matching the SCC record in the 200 freestyle relay first-place swim of 1:24.74 set by El Camino last year. Chun, Marsden, Painton, and Chun swam 1:24.76.
Pasadena's Michael Petersen won two events, the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, as did Long Beach's Nathaniel D'Aloisio in the 100 and 200 butterfly. Chaffey's Zixi Xu won the 200 freestyle.
Chun swam a meet fastest 56.24 in the 100 breaststroke prelim but Petersen snapped a 17-year-old PCC school record to beat Chun by .20 in the finals at 56.43.
Ray Chun
Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID
Photo Galleries by Richard Quinton