Sierra Men’s Swim and Dive wins state title for fourth consecutive season
For the fourth time in a row, the Sierra College men’s swim and dive team have won the CCCAA Swim and Dive championship, totaling 633.5 points over the three-day event at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa this past weekend.
Sierra won in 2019, 2022 and 2023 with no competitions being held in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Wolverines had multiple athletes compete who also performed last season such as sophomore Deklan Heinzen who won the 100-yard breaststroke at 54.38 seconds while also placing first in the 200-yard event. Heinzen was on the 400-yard medley relay team with Tyler Natrass, Genoa Nixon and Chris Nihart who beat Orange Coast by less than two seconds. Heinzen, Nixon, Nihart and Michael Hansen placed second in the 200-yard medley relay.
Another athlete who had an incredible weekend was Troy Quintana, racking up 56 points and winning three events including the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle at 1:38 and 4:30, respectively. Quintana also helped anchor the 800-yard freestyle relay team with Natrass, Brock Sippola and Aidan Thompson to victory over Golden West.
“I’ve been swimming for the better part of my life and never have I been a part of such a tight knit team,” Quintana said. “Everyone on that team pushed me to become a better version of myself and I hope I touched them in that same way. Personally, I believe that you’re more motivated to do something if it’s for someone else rather than yourself and this team has definitely supported that belief. Coach (Chris) Breitbart is the best coach in the country and it’s not even a competition, the man has coached me for a long time and I’d say he’s practically a second father to me. He wants the best for me and all my teammates and I want to make him proud.”
Nixon won the 100-yard butterfly at 49.51 seconds while Nihart came second in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races. Thompson won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:49. Natrass placed third in the 200-yard backstroke and Hansen was third in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke. Jonah Grove came third in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events. Sixteen Wolverines earned points for the team including: Quintana, Heinzen, Nixon, Thompson, Sippola, Nihart, Hansen, Grove, Zach Cano, Duncan Champagne, Casper Howland, Max Leftwich, Cameron Reed, Billy Seubert and Kaleb Wolfinger.
The women also had a good showing at state placing fifth out of 34 teams with 229 points. Sophomore Gillian Cano earned 21 points, the most for the Lady Wolverines, and finished eighth in the 200-yard breaststroke and ninth in the 100-yard event. Hannah Cockcroft was seventh in the 200-yard butterfly at 2:18 while Kiara Lopez came sixth in the three-meter dive with 180.45 points. Morgan Forkum placed fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:07 and came fourth in the 200-yard medley relay with Noelani Gardner, Maile Adao and Allyson Boudreaux.