Monroe, Marshall, Badaracco and Shea shine at WSC Championships

Jaiden Monroe set three meet records and broke a pair of school standards in earning three gold medals and the conference male athlete of the year at the Western State Conference Championship at Thursday through Saturday. Faith Marshall set a pair of school records and one meet record with her two individual golds and Olivia Badaracco also set a meet standard and earned two firsts in the three-day event at Los Angeles Valley. Thomas Shea also added two individual gold medal performances for the Pirates.

Monroe claimed three individual gold medals over the weekend. The sophomore from Oxnard broke Henry Chung's VC record from 2013 in the 200-yard backstroke, touching in 1:48.37. He also bested Rafael Aponte's Pirate standard in the 100-yard butterfly from 2009, swimming a 48.49. Both swims set a WSC championship records, as did his 49.11 mark in the 100-yard backstroke. Monroe was also honored as the co-Male Athlete of  the Year.

Marshall, meanwhile, set two school and meet records in winning a pair of individual firsts. The freshman from Simi Valley's Royal High School won the 100-yard breast stroke in 1:04.83, breaking a 28-year old mark set by Lori Turner in 1998. She also bested her own school record in the 200-yard breast stroke, touching in 2:24.34. 

Not to be outdone, Badaracco also won a pair of golds in the championships. The sophomore from Havasu City, AZ won the 100-yard backstroke with a meet reord time of 57.77. SHe also won the 200-yard back in 207.62. Badaracco also had an individual silver in the 50-yard freestyle, missing out on a gold by .2 seconds.

Shea was the fourth Pirate to claim individual gold, winning the 1m ad 3m diving events in competition held April 10.

Cassandra Wallop, Avery Monson, Marshall and Badaracco got the meet started Thursday with a second place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Also on Thursday, Badaracco, Marshall, Olivia Decierdo and Monson were third in the 400-yard medley relay. The same quartet came back Friday to finish second in the 200-yard medley relay on Friday while Badaracco, Wallop, Monson and Marshall won bronze in Saturday's finale, the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The men's relays also had an outstanding three days. Jacob Otsuki, Shea, Michael Ramirez and Monroe won silver in the 200-yard freestyle relay while the 400-yard medley relay quartet of Ramirez, Shane Speth, Monroe and Shea also finished second. Parker Steen, Otsuki, Brayden Black and Monroe also claimed silver in both the 800-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays.

Shea also contributed a bronze medal in the 50-yard freestyle while Otsuki placed third in the 100-yard free, fifth in the 200-yard free and seventh in the 50-yard free. Speth came in fifth, seventh and eighth in the 400-yard, 100-yard and 200-yard individual medleys, respectively. Ramirez was seventh in the 200-yard IM and eighth in the 100-yard backstroke and Black came in seventh n the 200-yard free and eighth in the 500-yard free. Jose Lopez won the B final in the 200-yard butterfly to finish ninth overall.

For the women, Decierdo claimed a pair of bronze medals in the 100-yard breast stroke and 100-yard individual medley and she finished fifth in the 200-yard IM.Monson and Wollop finished fifth and sixth in the 100-yard freestyle, respectively, and Ami Cruz came in sixth in the 1650 free and eighth in the 200-yard free. Stevie Sturges was eighth in the 100-yard breast stroke and Abigail Humphrey won the B final in the 200-yard backstroke.

The Pirate men totaled 503.5 points overall, finishing second behind Cuesta at 844. Santa Monica was third with 467 points.

VC's women's team earned 467 points to finish fourth behind Santa Barbara (819), LA Valley (596) and Cuesta (538). Santa Monica was fifth with 428 points.

The Pirates now await the qualifiers for the 3C2A State Championships to be held April 3-May 2 at Orange Coast in Costa Mesa.