By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

SANTA MARIA — College of the Canyons saw its men's team finish runner-up at Western State Conference (WSC) meet No. 1 hosted by Allan Hancock College, representing the Cougars' best finish at a conference meet since 2019.

Canyons tallied 394 event points on the men's side to trail host Allan Hancock (571). Ventura College (325) was third and L.A. Pierce (219) rounded out the field.

COC's women's team (90) was fifth on the day, trailing L.A. Pierce (162), Ventura (255), Allan Hancock (322) and meet winner Santa Barbara City College (893).

The Cougars finished first in three events with freshman Christian Cruz leading the charge. Cruz took the top spot in both the 50-yard freestyle (23.78) and 100-yard backstroke (1:01.53). He then swam in the anchor position for the 200-yard freestyle relay team that included Bence Endresz, Martin Wise and Keanu Pence. That combination swam to a first-place time of 1:36.56.

Earlier in the meet it was Cruz, Wise, Pence and Endresz clocking a time of 1:50.97 to finish third in the 200-yard medley relay.

Individually, Wise placed third in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.80) and 200-yard IM (2:19.77). Pence also had a third-place result with his time of 1:04.99 in the 100-yard butterfly.

Elsewhere, freshman Ahmed Abdelsalam fared well in the freestyle categories with third-place times in the 1,650-yard (20:06.63), 100-yard (53.34) and 200-yard (2:02.59) versions of the event.

The women's 200-yard medley relay team of Shea Zapolsky, Isabella Robles-Lahr, Ella Pratt and Mia Paras was clocked at 2:27.96 to finish eighth.

Later, it was Paras, Zapolsky, Robles-Lahr and Pratt at a pace of 2:07.57 to take eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Pratt posted the top individual result for the women's team with her seventh-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle (23:32.98). She also placed 15th in the 100-yard freestyle (1:08.25).

Zapolsky turned in a 10th-place time of 3:01.90 in the 200-yard IM and was also 11th in the 100-yard backstroke (1:19.87).

Full event results are available here.

Upcoming Schedule

The Cougars will be back in the pool Friday, Feb. 24 to begin competition at the two-day Mt. San Antonio College Invitational in Walnut, with events continuing into Saturday.

Canyons then swims at the 44th Annual Cuesta College Invitational running March 9-11 in San Luis Obispo.

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.