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.
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