Community college men’s swimming: After a recount, OCC wins

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - Upon agreement between athletic directors from Orange

Coast College and Golden West and after rescoring an Orange Empire

Conference dual men’s swim meet from April 5, the OCC Pirates have

defeated the OEC defending champion Rustlers, 104-90, Coast Athletic

Director Fred Hokanson said Tuesday.

The win gives the Pirates the OEC championship and an undefeated OEC

dual meet season (4-0). Golden West, OCC’s district rival, was last

year’s conference champion and has won the state title the past seven

years.

The April 5 meet had to be rescored because Golden West entered

swimmers in more than three events, OCC coaches learned late in the meet.

The violation did not adhere to NCAA rules, which the OEC swim teams

follow.

“The (OEC) rules say, we will be governed by the NCAA guide,” Hokanson

said. “I don’t think (Golden West) looked it up to see that.”

The decision made after an agreement between Hokanson and Golden West

Athletic Director Ray Shackleford will cause other OEC schools,

Fullerton, Santa Ana and Cypress, to protest their dual meets against

Golden West this season, Hokanson said.

Shackleford said rescoring the other dual meets will not make a

difference.

“We have to rescore the other three matches, but we would still win

the matches,” said Shackleford, who would not reveal the name of the

coach who made the decision to enter Golden West swimmers in more than

three events. “I won’t give out the name of the coach. Our swim coach

made an error and Orange Coast College won the meet. We’re not even sure

as to which of our coaches selected the swimmers for the events. There is

some uncertainty as to who it was, but we know we made a mistake.”

OCC assistant coach Mike Giles said Rick Graves and John Wright were

the Golden West coaches at the April 5 dual meet. Brian Kreutzkamp, a

former Newport Harbor High boys water polo coach, also coaches swimming.

OCC Coach Dave Salo cheered when he heard the news his Pirates won the

meet. Yet, he had some regret.

“I would rather have won the meet had we all been on the same page,”

Salo said. “There was some confusion by (a Golden West) coach in how many

events the swimmers could swim. (Golden West) might have swam the meet

differently, if they knew about the NCAA rules.”

In women’s community college competition, the swimmers are allowed to

swim four events.

“(The violation) was caught late in the meet,” Salo said. “A lot of

their guys were swimming three events. As coaches, we really don’t pay

attention to all of that. We really pay attention to our swimmers and our

times. But we noticed some swimmers had been in four events.”

Orange Coast and Golden West will clash again in the OEC Swimming

Championships April 25-27 at Saddleback.