Riverside Takes Second at Home OEC Event

Riverside City College saw solid performances at the second Orange Empire Conference meet of the year.

Orange Coast College won the event with a 798.5 team score, followed by the Tigers with a 639. Golden West College took third at 525.5, while Cypress College (245) and Saddleback College (150) rounded out the last two teams.

RCC's 400-yard relay team (Yousef Nahali, Jeremiah Ireland, Lennon Franklin, Zekiah Serrano) won by two full seconds, posting a time of three minutes, 9.59 seconds. The Tigers' 400-yard medley team (Franklin, Jared Ladinez, Serrano, Nahali) also grabbed a first-place finish with a time of 3:27.63.

Yousef won the 50-yard free in 21.13 but Franklin was right on his tail at 21.39 seconds for second. Franklin won the 100-yard free in 47.28 seconds.

Serrano won the 100-yard butterfly, touching the wall in 51.49 seconds, while also grabbing a runner-up finish in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 53.11 seconds.

Serrano also finished fourth in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:04.31, while Ladinez followed in fifth at 2:04.79. Ireland took fourth in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:33.53.

Ladinez took home the win in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.05 seconds. Davis DeAnda followed in third with a time of 1:01.78. Ladinez also won the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:10.75.

Off the diving board, Zachary McDonald took second on both diving boards. On the 1-meter, McDonald finished with a score of 292.35 and posted a 248.70 on the 3-meter.   

Vincent Fierro took third in the 500-yard free, touching home in 5:02.16.

Riverside remains at home to host the RCC Invitational on April 4 before shifting gears into the postseason.