It was all about tapering the last couple of weeks before Bakersfield College’s swim teams made their way back to L.A. Valley College for the Western State Conference Swimming Championships on Apr. 30-May 3.
This was an opportunity for the women’s team to defend their WSC Championship while the men’s side looked to finish the season strong.
“I thought everyone went out and did their best… we had a few bumps in the road, but overall I was happy with how the team responded,” said head coach Matt Moon. “As we look forward the possibility of competing at the CCCAA State Championship meet, we will make some adjustments to move forward and swim at a high level.”
Women: The women’s team nosedived finishing in sixth place with 342 total points, a 265-point difference from the previous conference championship season.
Lexi Zimmerman, Sara Klang and Paige Richardson led the way on the women’s side as they combined for 137 of the team’s 209 individual points.
Zimmerman finished top three in all three of her events taking second in both the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.88) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:35.12) while finishing third in the 200-IM with a time of 2:19.26.
Klang took third in both the 500-yard freestyle (5:26.05) and 200-yard butterfly (2:26.37).
For Richardson, she took fourth in both the 200-yard freestyle (2:03.85) and the 1650-yard freestyle (19:30.04).
Men: Just like last year’s WSC Championship, the Bakersfield College men’s swimming team took third overall with 451 points, finishing behind Cuesta (520 points) and Ventura (664 points).
Freshmen twins Lyle and Nick Drake led the way along with team-captain Cristian Serrato.
Lyle took fourth in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 17:26.34 and fourth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:52.62 while his twin brother Nick finished fourth in the 200-yard backstroke (2:07.42) and fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (56.97).
Serrato placed fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:22.10 and fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.21.
A list of the BC swimmers who have qualified for the state meet between Apr. 30 and May 2 are posted on therip.com/sports.