Perfection

For the first time in the history of
Santa Monica College swimming, the SMC women's swimming team was undefeated with a perfect 7-0 record.

It included wins over Cuesta and Ventura for the first time since 1997. On Friday April 3, the women finished the season
with a 162-52 win over the Citrus College Owls.

On Saturday April 4, the men and women's teams finished the dual-meet part of the season participating in the Pasadena Invitational. The men were lead by team
captain Tyler Contarsy and the rest
of his 400- meter freestyle relay
partners, Bob Valandra, Brian Peck,
Colin Roberts and Romey Ancona.

With two fifth-place finishes from diver Ryan King the men finished 14th over-all.
Team Captain Tyler Contarsy, when asked about the last meet of the season, believed that fatigue played a major factor in the loss at Citrus College and low placing
at Ventura College.

"We were swimming tired, and we were looking ahead to conference," said Contarsy. The women, led by All-Americans
Isabella Zhang and Sarah Ritz, along with their teammates Sara Zandihn, Sarma Zemjans, Chelsea Kemp, and Nam Hee Kim, finished the meet in sixth place.

The final event of the meet, the 400-,meter freestyle relay with the four women of Zhang, Zandihn, Kim, and Sarma Zemjanis set a new meet record of 3:42.89 with lead-off swimmer Zhang setting a new meet record and pool record with a 100-yard swim of 52.34
seconds. Having brought back many
different swimmers from last year as well as having a strong recruiting class, the women's swim team is now a favored contender to compete for a Western State
Conference title.

Now the training shifts to the championship part of the season, with the Western State Conference Championships being held at Bakersfield College on April 16-18 and the State Championships will be held at Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach on April 23-25.

Those who qualify at the Conference
Championships at Bakersfield will
compete at the State Championships
the following week. The practices are challenging and now they are all about fine-tuning. With the chances of winning the conference and state, Women's Head Coach Steven Contarsy tries to keep the team motivated for the rest of the season and tells swimmers: "Train hard, practice
fast, and you will swim fast and good things will happen. If you do not do these things, the opposite will happen."

Coach Contarsy is extremely excited about the team's chances of placing well in conference and state. He is looking to a great finish and is very excited about being the first undefeated women's team.