Posted: Feb 17, 2023
Hawks swimmers off the fast start in early meets
The Las Positas College men's and women's swimming and diving teams are off to strong starts in the 2023 season, including shining in an early meet against Diablo Valley and Mt. San Antonio colleges.
"I don't think we've ever had a meet in the first two weeks before," stated Hawks coach Jason Craighead. "We have a good group of athletes this year with some new and returning standout swimmers on both sides."
Returning female standouts are Ashley Sand, Samantha Dorn and Sarah Thompson, all State Championship Finalists.
Returning male standouts are Ross Brown and Zach Perry, both State qualifiers last season who are looking to medal this time around.
New faces on the men's team are Ryan Ridosko, Zach Zauhar-Kurr, and Marcu Holunga. All three of them are looking final at the State Championships in their events.
The Hawks competed in the 40-year-old NorCal Relay recently — a unique meet with events that are not on the NCAA list, but fun and creative. The meet used to be at the end of the season when swimmers were in shape and tapered (rested). Now it is early on the season, quite the opposite on rest and preparation.
"We got a wild hair and decided to stack a few relays last minute and take a shot at some very old meet records and went 2 for 2," Craighead said.
In fact, Zauhar-Kurr, Perry and Ridosko broke the 3x100 Breaststroke relay record by four seconds (DVC 1980), and then Zauhar-Kurr, Ross Brown, Perry and Ridosko also broke the 4x100IM record (DVC 1978).