2019 Bay Valley Conference

Fairfield, CA. Solano College played host to the 2019 Bay Valley Conference Swimming Championships, over April 18-20, 2019. This meet features the 4 schools from the Central Valley Conference (Clovis Community College, Fresno City College, Merced College, and College of the Sequoias) as well as the schools from the Bay Valley Conference (Laney College, College of Marin, Solano College, and Shasta College). Clovis Community College women's team held off College of the Sequoias in a very tight race to win their 2nd conference title in the past 3 years, while the men finished a respectable 3rd place behind conference champions, Merced College, and runners-up, College of the Sequoias.

The men's meet didn't provide the fireworks that the women's meet offered, however, the number of men's swimmers finishing in the top 8 finalists were very high and very broad. Merced College dominated the meet from start to finish, leaving a good race for second place between College of Sequoias and Clovis. In the end, the depth of a very good COS men's side overcame a strong, last day challenge from the Crush men's team.

Returning CCCAA All-American Dante Ramos provided the men's only championship title, as he topped the field in his signature event, the 1650 freestyle. Ramos finished sixth in this event at the State meet in 2017, and after taking a year away from college swimming, will hope to return to the finalists in the event in this year's competition! Ramos also finished 2nd in the 500 freestyle as well as 3rd in the 200 freestyle. At the time of post, Ramos is qualified to represent the Crush in all three of these events at the CCCAA State Championships in Cupertino, hosted by DeAnza College in May. Also qualifying for the CCCAA State meet is sophomore returnee, Stuart Mallam. His runner-up effort in the 200 breaststroke yielded a time worthy of qualifying for the State level also allowing his 100 breaststroke to be accepted as a bonus event for the competition.

While the Crush men's swimmers did not individually top the podium in any further events, their relays constructed some great competition with their BVC rivals, highlighted by a tight race in the longest relay event, the 800 freestyle relay. This race, which consists of 4 swimmers each swimming an individual 200 freestyle, takes about seven minutes to play out, in this case, the lead changed at least 6 times between Clovis and Merced. In the end, the team of Ramos, Mallam, Daniel Jones, and Colin Plank fell just short of the finishing in the lead. The team of Plank, Mallam, Ramos, and Jones also rewrote the school record book, as their 400 medley relay replaced the team from 2017 to put their names into the record book.

Ramos and Mallam will be joined, at the state meet, by returning CCCAA All-American, Jaylan Neal, and freshman, Joshua Depaz, who will both compete in diving events, which were qualified at the NorCal Regional Championships, last week in Cupertino. Neal was the top placing diver in the 1m event for the BVC, and Depaz was the top scorer in the 3m. Neal was also the top diving scorer overall from the BVC, which earned him the title of BVC Diver of the Year. The foursome will culminate their season by competing at the CCCAA championships in Cupertino in May.