Men’s swim impresses at opener

The men's swimming team opened the season with a fourth place finish at the Golden West Invitational on Friday in Huntington Beach.  The Gauchos had many impressive performances against some of the top competition in the southern half of the state.

Saddleback finished fourth out of 11 teams and was right in the middle of Orange Empire competition, beating both Fullerton College and Santa Ana College while finishing behind both Golden West College and Riverside City College. 

Saddleback had a number of top-10 performances on a cold and windy day where temperatures in the water were 82 degrees but once they got out of the pool it was only in the mid-to-high 50's.

Andrew Dimino was the most impressive swimmer for Saddleback, finishing second in both the 100 Freestyle (48.93) and the 50 Freestyle (22.36) while coming in seventh in the 200 Freestyle (1:56.84).  He was also part of the 200 Freestyle Relay Team that finished third (1:32.59) and the 800 Freestyle Relay Team that finished sixth (8:16.12).

Other Gauchos that had solid performances included Patrick Workman, James Martin, Luke Prendiville, Keyan Boniadi, Nathan Benge, Taylor Enzi, Keeon Jabbour, James Martin, Daniel Peralta and Brent McClain.

Workman finished third in the 50 Fly (26.51) and fourth in the 100 Backstroke (1:01.02).  Martin finished fifth in the 100 Backstroke (1:01.59) while Prendeville was fifth in the 500 Freestyle (3:21.26).  Boniadi was fifth in the 200 Individual Medley (2:11.32) while finishing seventh in the 100 Freestyle (52.05).  Enzi finished eighth in the 50 Freestyle (23.57) while finishing ninth in the 100 Breaststroke (1:09.99).  Martin was fifth in the 100 Backstroke (1:01.59) while Benge was fifth in the 50 Fly (26.86).  Jabbour finished eighth in the 500 Freestyle (5:37.64), while Peralta was ninth in the 50 Backstroke (32.13) and McClain was 10^th in the 50 Breaststroke (31.60). 

In addition to the Freestyle Relay Teams, the 400 Medley Relay Team finished fourth overall (4:00.28).

Saddleback will be back in the pool next Friday when they host the Orange Empire Conference.

TEAM SCORES