Pirates earn second overall at OCC Invitational
COSTA MESA -- It was a quality performance turned in by the Orange Coast College swim team as the Pirates earned a second-place team finish at the 2026 OCC Invitational on Friday at the OCC Aquatics Pavilion.
The Pirates finished the meet with 473 points, topped only my Santa Barbara City College's 607.5 points. DeAnza College finished third overall with 394 points, followed by Miramar (392), Santa Monica (374), Golden West (265), Palomar (164) and Grossmont (69.5).
The opening race set the tone for the Pirates as they edged out SBCC in the 200 freestyle relay by .26 seconds. The Pirate foursome of Analiese Duncan, Ayla Puente, Emma Steffens and Leyna Nguyen touched the wail first with a time of 1 minute, 40.35 seconds, edging out the Vaqueros' time of 1:40.61.
In fact, Coast earned three golds and a silver in the four relay events. In addition to the 200 free relay win, Nguyen, Duncan, Puente and Ariah Martinez topped the field in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:52.33.
Duncan, Nguyen, Martinez and Steffens destroyed the field in the 800 freestyle relay with a time of 8:26.12, over 41 seconds ahead of runner-up Miramar's time of 9:07.66).
Finally, in the 400 freestyle relay, the foursome of Nguyen, Puente, Steffens and Martinez earned the gold with a winning time of 3:50.48.
On the individual side of things, Duncan topped the Pirates with three more first-place performances, winning the gold medal in the 200 individual medley (2:09.58), the 100 breaststroke (1:06.12) and the 200 breaststroke (2:24.9).
Nguyen showed off her speed in the water by taking first place in both the 50 freestyle (24.01) and the 100 freestyle (53.88).
Steffens picked up the double-gold in the backstroke events, winning the 100 back (1:01.05) and the 200 back (2:16.78).
Other top-three performances were turned in by ...
SECOND PLACE
500 Freestyle -- Emma Steffens, 5:28.93
100 Backstroke -- Leyna Nguyen, 1:01.58
400 Medley Relay -- 4:09.42
THIRD PLACE
100 Butterfly -- Ayla Puente, 1:01.09
It's championship season for the Pirate swim team as they compete in the 2026 Orange Empire Conference Swim/Dive Championships, April 16-18 at Orange Coast College, with preliminary races beginning at 9:30 a.m.
