The Pitman varsity girls swim team are the Central California Conference champions for the fifth time in school history after coming away with a victory in Saturday's league meet. The Pitman boys ended with a third place result.
“On the girls side, I knew it would be really close with Merced, who has won the title the last four years. Every race was important and as a team we knew it too,” said Pitman coach Anne Cornell.
Turlock's girls took third and the boys took fourth place.
“We did pretty well for having a small team,” said Turlock coach Aaron Weiss.
The Pitman girls team was led by seniors Annika Jasek and Natasha Sondeno, who added an abundance of points with their first place results.
Jasek took first in the 200 yard free and the 500 free and Sondeno placed first in girls diving with a score of 420.2.
The Pride were also assisted by standout performances from junior swimmers Audrey Morgan and Jillian Kennell.
Morgan took second in the 50 free and first in the 100 free. Kennell took first in the 100 butterfly with a personal best time of 1:07.18.
The 200 free relay team that consisted of Kennell, Morgan, Ashley Long and Taylor Starkweather, placed first with a season best time of 1:48.38.
The 400 free relay team took first with a time of 3:53.90.
“The girls had some close races with great results. We were really excited and pleased with the first place finish in the CCC,” said Cornell.
Josh Hamby of Pitman took first in the boy's diving with a score of 295.30 and Josh Buck topped out in second place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 58.29.
“On the boys side, we were hoping for a higher finish, but with diving added in, Atwater had the advantage with three added divers,” said Cornell.
Turlock saw some top finishes on both the girls and boys sides with multiple second place finishes for the girls.
Sarah Phillips took second in the 100 breaststroke and Allison Serratos finished second in the 100 backstroke.
Isabella Romeo of Turlock placed second in the 100 butterfly and as a team, the girls took second the 200 free relay team.
On the boys side, Trent Yandell topped all Bulldogs with a first place finish in the 200 free and placed second in the 100 free.
The boys also took second in the 200 and 400 free relay races.
“Trent was very impressive,” said Weiss. “But the best moment of the day was our 400 free relay team of Yandell, Jakob Bradley, Matt Hesse and Mykel Garton coming from fourth place and Yandell blew by two other swimmers and out touched them to place second in the race.”
