Women’s swim & dive 4th at OEC Finals

The Saddleback women's swim and dive team finished in fourth place at the Orange Empire Conference Finals on Saturday at Riverside City College.  The Bobcats were led by freshman Sophia Guntrip.

Saddleback's fourth place finish was the highest since finishing third in 2018.  The Bobcats finished with 385 points, which was the highest total for programs with less than 10 competitors. 

Guntrip was the workhorse for Saddleback, competing in five events and finishing in the top-5 in three.  She finished third in both the 100 Fly (1:05.17) and 100 Breaststroke (1:15.15) while finishing fifth in the 50 Freestyle (26.90), sixth in the 100 Freestyle (1:02.39) and seventh in the 200 Breaststroke (2:45.99).  Guntrip (pictured) shaved nearly a second off of her prelim time in the 100 Fly when she touched the pad in 1:05.17 in the finals, which ranks in the top-25 all time in Saddleback history. 

Another with a busy weekend was Kaitlyn Santala, who had three finishes in the top-5.  Santala was fourth in both the 400 Individual Medley (5:11.22) and 1650 Freestyle (20:08.32) while finishing fifth in the 200 Freestyle (2:15.20).

Two other top-5 performances were turned in by Saddleback as Malak Abousalama was fifth in the 1-meter dive (90.8) on Thursday and Irie Jimenez was fifth in the 100 Breaststroke (1:16.71) on Friday. 

Saddleback finished fourth in the 200 Freestyle Relay when the combination of Sophia Guntrip, Malia Abrahamian, Kaitlyn Santala and Natalie Westfall finished in 1:51.69.

Saddleback will compete next at the California Community College Athletic Association State Championships on April 5 at East Los Angeles College.