Mt. San Antonio Captures Historic 1st Women's State Swim Championship

History was made May 1-3 as Mt. San Antonio College performed a sport first by winning women's team title at the 3C2A State Swimming and Diving Championship held at Santa Rosa Junior College. 

The women's championship went to a remarkable third straight diffferent first-time winner in Mt. SAC as it followed 2023 champ Santa Monica and '24 champ Santa Barbara City to historical new achievements for their respective colleges in the sport.

The Mounties also won a close one by 16 points to unseat defending champ Santa Barbara, 440-424. Mt. SAC earned the South Coast Conference its first women's title in swimming in 25 years, but the first by one of the current SCC members ever. The last South Coast-represented title was Golden West (now an Orange Empire member) in 2000. This is 125th state women's team championship in South Coast history. 

Mt. SAC collected three golds in winning the 400-yard medley relay of Paige Fast, Spencer Damaske, Elleanna Ramos, and Carolyn Kao on day 1, the 200 medley relay with the same four swimmers on day 2, and then Ramos capturing the 200 butterfly crown (2:06.74) on Saturday's finale session and last individual event. Mt. SAC's Chris Jackson was selected Women's Swim Coach of the Meet. 

Ramos earned the silver in the 100 butterfly as did Kao in the 200 freestyle and both the Mounties' 200 and 400 freestyle relays. Fast scored the bronze in the 500 freestyle and Kao did the same in the 50 free.

The South Coast also received tremendous representation with the swimming of El Camino sophomore Iyanah Samayoa. Last year, she was the Co-Swimmer of the Meet with teammate Mia Park, and on Saturday she broke the state meet record to win the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:15.93. Samayoa snapped another SCC swimmer's record in Mt. SAC's Ashley Tse, who held the previous mark of 2:17.50 set in 2018. 

Samayao, who was a repeat state champ in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, earned the 3C2A Women's Performance of the Meet award. This year's SCC Co-Swimmer of the Year, she won five state meet events and had one silver in her two ECC seasons. 

Samayao in action at 3C2A state meet

Long Beach City College placed eighth in the team standinds with 207 points. Avery White had the Vikings top finish, fifth in the 200 backstroke. El Camino was 12th as a team with 133.

Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID