Monarch freshmen women led the charge at Mt. SAC invitational

The Valley College women’s swim team hosts Santa Monica Saturday for an 11 a.m. start. 

By: Alejandro Garcia, Sports Editor

The women’s swim team hit the pool Monday after a successful run at the Mt. Sac Invitational, where the team placed fifth among 21 other colleges. The team will host Santa Monica College Saturday at the LAVC Aquatics Center for their second conference meet of the season, slated to start at 11 a.m. (Angel Rangel for The Valley Star)

The Monarchs are heading into their second Western State Conference swim meet on Saturday, looking to capitalize on the moment from the Mt. Sac Invitational. 

The Monarchs placed fifth at Mt. Sac last week among 21 teams, totaling 434.5 points across 23 events. Amid those contests, Monarch swimmers collected 11 medals, including three gold, seven silver and one bronze.

The swimmers that led the charge included freshmen Abby Chatalyan, Stella Kalaba, Ani Thomassian and Camilla Guillermo. Chatalyan placed fourth in the women's 500-meter freestyle, finishing at 5:30.92, and placed first in the 200-meter fly at 2:17.44.

“I think coming out of the recent invitational, our team is just slowly becoming more cohesive and learning from small mistakes," said freshman Ani Thomassian, women's 200-meter relay and 100-meter individual medley swimmer. “Coming from a fresh team, every meet is a learning experience."

Along with Chatalyan, freshman Stella Kalaba had an impressive finish as she also placed at the top of her event, the women's 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:48.93. Kalaba placed second in the 100-meter individual medley at 1:02.06, just 0.02 seconds behind Santa Barbara City College's Trinity Pink. 

The freshmen's firepower did not end there, as the Monarchs also placed second behind Santa Barbara City College in the 200-meter freestyle. Guillermo, Thomassian and Chatalyan were the core of that team, finishing at 1:41.99.

This year, the Monarchs' squad consists of 14 freshmen out of the 19 swimmers. 

“I think our girls will be even faster next year,” said Valley freshman Abby Chatalyan. “Hopefully we keep resetting our relay records.”