Coast women rule

A year ago, Don Watson and Dave Salo looked at each other and decided

they wanted to build a winner.

Their dream came true Saturday as the Orange Coast College women’s

swim team they co-coach won its first state championship since 1997

by besting the field at the California Community College Swimming and

Diving Championships at Diablo Valley.

“We had high expectations, but [Saturday] is the culmination of

everything we started a year ago,” Watson said as he was driving the

team home Saturday night. “A year ago, I’d been away on sabbatical

and Dave had his [United States] national team duties, so we said,

‘Why don’t we put our minds to it and build a quality team?’”

The women’s team scored 533.5 points to runner-up Diablo Valley

(370).

Salo and Watson were named co-coaches of the three-day state meet,

which ended Saturday with a state and national record being broken by

OCC freshman phenom Sherry Tsai.

Tsai swam a 54.92 in the 100-yard backstroke to set a state and

national mark and was voted Most Outstanding Performer of the state

meet.

“There is a long tradition of good swimmers at Coast who are good

people,” Watson said. “Sherry Tsai is right up there at the top of

the list when it comes to combining talent and character. She is the

complete package in how she conducts herself and how she swims with

all that talent.”

The high-point swimmer of the state meet was also a part of OCC’s

winning 400 free relay team, along with Kimberlee Frith, Sara

Natalizio and Ashley Lowden, which took first place in 3:33.71.

“It all came because of hard work, training and good teammates,”

Tsai said about breaking the record, the first time she has swam

under 54 seconds in the 100 back. “All I wanted to do was try my

best. To break the record surprised me a little bit.”

Jennifer Nelson placed second in the 100 butterfly (58.34) with

Natalizio following at 58.62 and Lowden coming in ninth at 1:01.43.

Shannon Maxfield touched third in the 1,650 (18:15.72) and

Natalizio placed seventh in the 100 back (1:01.78). Nikki Stevens

finished in seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.05).

The Coast men placed third with 316 points to first-place Diablo

Valley (608).

The 400 free relay team of Paul Frankenberger, Billy Swanson,

Billy Jolly and Tyson Beamer finished second in 3:09.51 Saturday.

Frankenberger placed fourth in the 100 free (47.42) while Beamer

placed sixth in the same event in 47.87. Matt Henry swam to an

eighth-place finish in the 200 fly (2:01.64) to round out Coast’s top

eight performances Saturday.

“The guys have overachieved this year, they have come from

nowhere,” Watson said. “They are a small group of guys that have

achieved an incredible thing. As soon as they achieved something,

they went on to achieve something else and got stronger as the season

progressed.

“The girls team was an ideal experience from the beginning. They

had excellent chemistry and that chemistry brought out terrific

performances in all of their events. They train well and that

camaraderie gave them the extra opportunity to dig down deep and

deliver.”

-- by Bryce Alderton