Pirate men claim eighth place at State Meet
COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's swim team capped off a successful 2026 season with an eighth-place team finish at last weekend's 3C2A Swim/Dive State Championships this past weekend at the OCC Aquatics Pavilion.
In a state meet that featured a first-ever tie at the top of the team leaderboard (Sierra and Mt. San Antonio -- 421 points each), the Pirates earned the No. 8 spot in the state with 233 points, with San Mateo (211.5) and Diablo Valley (182) wrapping up the top-10.
Friday's Day 2 of the State Meet saw the Pirates claim their first individual state championship in the 100-yard butterfly, as Kaua Mota led from start to finish, fought off a late surge from state runner-up, Jaiden Monroe of Ventura College, and captured the gold medal with a time of 48.36, just .16 ahead of Monroe and 1.01 seconds ahead of bronze medalist, Wyatt Miner of Riverside City College.
Mota also earned a pair of silver medals for his hard work, taking second in the 100 individual medley (49.86, just .7 off of last year's state-record time) and the 100 freestyle (45.32).
OCC's second gold medal came on Day 3 in the 200 breaststroke when Jun Caruso earned the only sub-2-minute time in the finals, touching the wall first with a time of 1:59.92, just ahead of De Anza's Gunner Hopkins (2:00.09) and American River's Joshua Noonan (2;03.68).
Caruso also earned himself a bronze medal in the 100 breaststroke with a third-place time of 56.32.
Here are the day-by-day results for OCC from last weekend's state championships ...
DAY 1
200 Freestyle Relay (Kaua Mota, Jackson Williams, Dylan Knox, Cade Zeilinger), 6th place, 1:24.72
500 Freestyle -- Jackson Williams, 13th, 4:46.35
200 Individual Medley -- Jun Caruso, 11th, 1:55.06; Oscar Cruz, 16th, 2:01.47
DAY 2
200 Medley Relay (Jackson Williams, Jun Caruso, Kaua Mota, Cade Zeilinger), 6th, 1:32.94
100 Butterfly -- STATE CHAMPION -- Kaua Mota, 1st, 48.36
100 Breaststroke -- BRONZE MEDAL -- Jun Caruso, 3rd, 56.32
100 Backstroke -- Jackson Williams, 10th, 52.95
800 Freestyle Relay (Jun Caruso, Diego Lamboglia, Jack McCann, Oscar Cruz), 8th, 7:02.73
DAY 3
1650 Freestyle -- Diego Lamboglia, 8th, 16:35.50
100 Individual Medley -- SILVER MEDAL -- Kaua Mota, 2nd, 49.86
200 Backstroke -- Jackson Williams, 12th, 1:57.87
100 Freestyle -- SILVER MEDAL -- Kaua Mota, 2nd, 45.32
200 Breaststroke -- STATE CHAMPION -- Jun Caruso, 1st, 1:59.92
200 Butterfly -- Oscar Cruz, 5th, 1:55.26
400 Freestyle Relay (Jackson Williams, Kaua Mota, Jun Caruso, Diego Lamboglia), 8th, 3:06.62
