Cuesta College's Swim and Dive teams have dominated the Western State Conference since the Cougars joined the circuit in 1983. Over the past forty years the women's team has won 22 WSC titles, while the men own 17, including three of the past four. The men are two-time defending champions, while the women, who took the title in 2021, fell to 4th place in the conference last season, but also took 3rd place at the 2022 State Meet. The WSC Championships, due to weather cancellations, are the Cougars first event this month and will run this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys.
The men are currently undefeated on the season and a conference title this weekend should be just another meet as they pursue the program's first CCCAA State Title. 2022 Western State Conference co-MVPs Stash Perry and Andrew Lopez are both back in the tank for the Cougars and should be automatic winners of three individual events each. They will be joined this weekend by fellow returning All Americans Ethan Perry and Eron Ray. The quartet of All Americans hold six of Cuesta 36 recognized swimming records, including the 1650-freestyle (16:23.66) that Stash Perry broke last month, and a total 16 Cuesta All Time Top 10 marks. Freshman Gage Price joins Stash as the only other swimmer to post a Top 10 mark this season. Price holds the 9th spot all time in the 200-butterfly (1:59.49). Freshmen Dante Ianora, Zachary O'Connor, Tre Eade and Ethan Merritt all expected to score points and fill out the relays for the Cougars this weekend. Cuesta also sent a contingent to last week's 2023 CCCAA Regional Diving Meet, where all of the region's divers competed for both conference points and a spot at the CCCAA State Swim & Dive Championships in May. The results have not been announced, but the Cougars are confident that their free-falling trio of Matthew Wheeler, Jake Escobar and Jake Burns brought home some points.
The women's team is down to two swimmers, All American Anna Kreowski and Redshirt Freshman Ryan Rascon. Kreowski helped the Cougars to the Bronze at the 2022 CCCAA Championships. She was also part of two State title winning relays, the 200-free relay (1:39.24) and the 800-free relay (8:04.89), with the 200-free relay also setting a Cuesta's school record. Rascon competed in only one meet last season, before pursuing a medical-redshirt, but made her mark in her one meet. She reached the final spot on Cuesta's all-time Top 10 for the 200-breastroke with a time 3:00.21.
The WSC Championships are the final meet before the 2023 CCCAA State Swim & Dive Championships at East LA College the first weekend of May.
