Hancock Finishes Seventh at Cuesta Invitational; Diaz, Gonzalez and Kwong Earn Top Five Finishes

Sophomores Maddie Diaz, Rebecca Gonzalez and Dria Kwong each earned top five finishes, and two relay teams broke school records to highlight the Allan Hancock College women's swim team's showing during the two-day Cuesta Invitational. The meet is one of the largest in the state with 25 schools and swimmers participating. 

Hancock finished seventh overall out of 25 teams. The Bulldogs finished with 207 total points, 135 through individual events and 72 through relays. Sierra College won with 781 points, followed by Santa Rosa with 497 points and Orange Coast in third with 297 points. The host Cougars finished fifth with 260 points and Santa Barbara City came in sixth with 230.

Kwong opened with an eighth place finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:19.17. She followed that with a fifth place showing in the 200-yard butterfly and a time of 2:23.83. The Orcutt Academy graduate later earned third place finishes in the 100-fly with a time of 1:00.96, and 100-individual medley with a time of 1:00.62. All told, Kwong earned 57 points for Hancock in individual events.

Diaz finished second in a field of 24 in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:50.96, about 13 seconds behind the winner. The second-place finish earned 17 points for the Bulldogs. Freshman Meagan Stevens placed eighth in 20:31.65 to pick up 11 more points in the standings.  Diaz later came in eighth in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 5:01.52, and ninth in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:35.39. The Pioneer Valley High School graduate picked up 37 points on her own for the Bulldogs.

Rebecca Gonzalez earned 27 points for the Bulldogs. The Nipomo High School graduate placed fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:11.78, and came in sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:35.77.

Makenna Blanco picked up three points with a 14^th place showing in the 200-yard butterfly. She finished in 2:46.14.

Diaz, Kwong, Ellyn Clardy and Stevens earned 30 points with a fourth place finish in the 800-free relay. Their time of 8:39.69 was nearly 10 seconds faster than their qualifying time. The Bulldogs also set a school record in the 200-medley relay with a time of 2:00.45 to finish seventh out of 47 teams behind Stevens, Gonzalez, Kwong and Clardy. The Bulldogs closed the invitational with a fifth place showing in the 400-medley relay and a time of 4:25.36 to earn 28 more points. A second team of Brannica Casabar, Allie Shea, Diaz and Shannon Copeland finished 15^th in 5:08.11 to pick up four more points.

Hancock will return to action at L.A. Valley during the second Western State Confernece five-team meet of the season on Saturday, March 18.