Posted: May 05, 2026

Mt. SAC Achieves First Men's State Swim and Dive Championship, Tying Sierra

Mt. San Antonio College became a first-time, 3C2A state champion in men's swimming in sharing the 2026 crown with six-peat champ Sierra at the state meet held April 30-May 2 at Orange Coast College.

In the closest finish in the 77-year history of the meet, the Mounties scored 24 points for seventh place in the final swim--the 400-yard freestyle relay--while Sierra won the race and 40 points in the process. That created the first tie for a men's championship with Mt. SAC and the Wolverines scoring 421 each. American River placed third just off the pace at 418.

Mt. SAC is the 12th state men's champion from the South Coast Conference and first since former member Golden West won in 2000.

Mounties coach and Co-Coach of the Year Marc Ruh said it was more of a wait-and-see approach to the final point totals.

"There were so many ways the scores could have gone, so we just wanted to see it play itself out," Ruh said. "Once we saw it was a tie - unbelievable. Our guys had a goal from the very beginning that this is what they wanted to accomplish. Our coaching staff encouraged that and that belief did a lot of good things. We had some guys go down late in the season, so we just had to let it all play itself out. We thought we could be in the fight, and we started fourth heading into today, so who knows, right?"

Lincoln Jones won the 200 backstroke title in 1:46.65 to lead Mt. SAC's swims and he also was second in the 400 individual medley and third in the 200 IM. Cooper Golling scored the silver in the 1,650 free and the bronze in the 500 free. Luke Marsden placed third in the 100 IM.

Other hardware from the SCC was turned in by Long Beach City's Ian Dien, who became Diver of the Meet by winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter board titles. Shane Butler picked up the Diving Coach of the Year award.

Chaffey's David Xu placed second in the 200 butterfly.

The South Coast now has 122 state titles in men's sports.

Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID, quote courtesy of 3C2A