Bakersfield College swimming head coach Charlie Pike said that the swim teams’ plans to travel to the Feb. 26-27 Invite at Mt. San Antonio College were cancelled due to lack of funding.
“By just going through our budget and how much money we had in the foundation, I figured we couldn’t pull it off,” Pike said. “I’ve known for about three weeks now.”
When asked if the team will miss any more meets, Pike replied, “No, I think we’re set for the season. Everybody is feeling the budget, we just have to make cuts where we can.”
Despite not going to the Mt. SAC meet, Pike had planned an endurance-ridden weekend for the teams.
“We’re doing a team hike; we’re going up into the Kern Canyon.”
On Feb. 19 at BC, the Renegade swimmers competed in their first Western State Conference meet, against Ventura, Santa Monica and L.A. Pierce College.
The only individual winner for BC was Katie Lopes in the 50-yard freestyle. BC finished third overall for both the men’s and women’s teams.
Pike mentioned how both men and women medley relay teams got disqualified.
“It went fairly smoothly, but we had a few mistakes early with disqualifications on the relay. They jumped too soon, before the swimmers got to the wall. They false started.”
However, Pike added, “I think the kids are swimming well for where we’re at right now. I’m pleased with the way things are going.”
Max Robertson, 35, returned to BC this semester to swim for BC, which is his first collegiate level of competitive swimming since high school (1993) and his first semester at BC since 1998.
Robertson explained why he returned.
“I had the time, and I always had the want. They cut the swim team [at BC] the year I graduated high school so I wasn’t able to compete after. They brought it back, so here I am.”
Pike said about the season, “Our whole season is geared toward what happens in the conference meets, so I’m using these meets for training.”
Pike mentioned how missing the Mt. SAC invitational won’t affect much for the season.
“Since it’s still early in the season, we’ll get away with it OK. We still have the Cuesta [College] Invite (March 12-13). I always look for one or two times a season where we can race three days in a row. This would have been one of them.”
The teams traveled to College of the Sequoias and new assistant coach, Pat Zuniga, BC alumnus, said “We had a couple of girls that did pretty well. We had one first place for the guys. The team needs a lot of improvement, but it was a good starting point to find out where they are and where they need to go.” The women also tied UC Merced 57-57.
BC’s Katherine James won the 1000-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle. Teammate Bridget Alexander won the 50-yard freestyle and 50-yard butterfly.
Pike said that the teams lose points to other teams easily, as he said “The problem is, that we don’t have any divers.”
BC automatically lost 10 points to COS and 16 points to Merced for not having divers.
Despite not having divers, Pike was proud of the way his teams persevered. “That was a pretty big hurdle to overcome but they did awesome.”
The BC men lost overall to both colleges.
“Dimitrios Kostianis was our lone individual for the men [in the 50 freestyle],” said Pike.
The teams travel to College of the Canyons March 5 and to the Cuesta Invitational, March 12-13.