Pirate Swimming Features Three Golds for Ongstad at Cuesta

VC sophomore Mitchell Ongstad broke out with three individual golds Friday and Saturday at the highly competitive Cuesta Invitational in San Luis Obispo. The Ventura men placed second in the 15-team event while the Pirate women came in seventh.  Raquel Rodriguez led the efforts for the Ventura women.

Ongstad finished first in the 100-yard freestyle (45.73 seconds) on Friday while besting the field in the 50-yard freestyle (21.05) and 100-yard backstroke (51.15) on Saturday.  Meanwhile, Austin Hammond won the 500-yard freestyle (4:49.31) on the second day and finished second in both the 200-yard butterfly and 1,450-yard freestyle on day one. Chris Sands claimed gold in the 200-yard butterfly (1:53.80).  In total, Ventura won a meet-high seven events including the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Rodriguez claimed a pair of fifth place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke (1:08.19) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:24.52). Delani Clark was fifth in the 100-yard individual medley (1:12.00).

The Pirate teams return to the pool on Saturday March 14 in a Western State Conference competition at Santa Monica.