Swimmers claim top-5 finishes at OEC Finals
The Saddleback women's swim season came to a close on Friday night at Orange Coast College with the team finishing fifth at the OEC Finals. Saddleback had a pair of swimmers with top-5 finishes.
Saddleback's Noelle Yanagawa and Kaitlyn Santala both had solid afternoons in the pool on Friday, collecting three medals apiece.
Yanagawa (pictured left) had a second place finish in the 50-yard freestyle race when she touched the pad in 26.32. It was 0.33 seconds faster than her qualifying time the previous day. Yanagawa also had a third place finish in the 200-yard freestyle (2:05.09), shaving 0.49 seconds off of her qualifying time. In addition, she finished fifth in the 100-yard freestyle (56.73), collecting 47 points for the team.
Santala (pictured right) had 43 points for the week, finishing second in the 500-yard freestyle (5:44.14) and sixth in both the 200-yard individual medley (2:26.19) and 100-yard backstroke (1:07.40). Her biggest improvement from the prelims was knocking 2.23 seconds off of her qualifying time in the 200-yard IM.
In addition to Yanagawa and Santala, Jacqueline Lyle had an 11th place finish in the 500-yard freestyle (6:50.05), and 15th place finishes in both the 200-yard freestyle (2:30.76) and 50-yard freestyle (31.88).