SANTA ROSA — As the sun descended towards the horizon, marking the end of the final day of the CCCAA Championships, sophomore Chris Guidi sensed a chance for one last victory. One last dash to conclude his season.
Right on his tail was Daniel Charan of Orange Coast College. Heading into the last 50 yards, Guidi held just over a second lead over his challenger. Charan dug deeper, going faster in the last sprint.
But Guidi went fast enough. Reaching for the touchpad, his time of 1:55.15 saw him first by just 0.09 seconds.
He grabbed hold of the starting block, raising his feet into the air and banging them together over the surface of the water — his signature celebration, one he whipped out when he won this same 200-yard butterfly event in the Nest for the Hawks Invitational.
But when Guidi climbed out of the pool, there was no medal waiting for him. Rather, the next group of racers stood behind the blocks, ready to start the next race.
Guidi hadn’t won the event. The race he came first in was the first of two heats. He ended ninth, more than six seconds behind first-place finisher Nathaniel D’Aloisio of Long Beach City College. He wasn’t even the highest finishing Hawk, with his teammate Larwence Thomas, a freshman, coming sixth.
Guidi celebrated nonetheless. He won the race that took priority to him. The race against himself. A race the Hawks ran the entire championship.
The Hawks’ success at the 76th Annual CCCAA Championships, hosted by Santa Rosa Junior College from May 1 to May 3, couldn’t be seen from the standings. The women’s squad finished 13th with 99 points, the men one spot higher with their 108 points earning 12th. Both teams were more than 300 points behind the two champions — Mt. San Antonio College on the men’s side, Sierra College on the women’s.
It didn’t come as a surprise. The Hawks knew they weren’t contending with the top of the state. None of the Hawks swimmers managed a podium finish. Only their two top women’s divers, Sarah Dorn and Ainsley Wade, finished in the top three.
Rather than racing against the best of what California JUCO offered, the Hawks were set on racing themselves. They produced nine personal best performances.
“I thought we did fantastic,” head coach Craighead said. “Every day we got a little bit better, performed a little bit better. And today (May 3) was our best day. It’s fantastic. It’s always good to close out a meet when you’re most tired and put in the most amount of work, and still perform the best.”
Guidi encompassed this idea. He earned personal best times in all three of his events, adding a 10th-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley (IM) and 12th in the 500-yard freestyle. No one finished higher than Thomas’ sixth, who also came 14th in the 100-yard butterfly.
They were joined by sophomore Jay Jani, who finished 12th in the 200-yard breaststroke and freshman Andre Valle, who came 16th in both the 200-yard backstroke and 400 IM.
For the women’s swimmers, sophomore Makenzie Duffin once again led the way. She finished 15th in the 200-yard freestyle, 12th in the 500-yard freestyle and sixth in the 1650 freestyle. She produced personal best performances in the 500 and 1650 races.
Freshman Caroline Guide was the only other woman Hawk to compete in an individual event. She earned 10th in the 200-yard butterfly.
They competed in six relay events while finishing in the top 13 each time. Their best finish was eighth, which they achieved in the 400-yard medley relay.
“They were all significantly faster than we did at conference championships,” Craighead said. “All lifetime best times across the board on the relay too.”
Last season, the year was easy for Craighead. He had top-state contenders on both teams, with athletes such as Zach Zauhar-Kurr, Ryan Ridosko and Samantha Fehr, all of whom achieved top-four finishes in last year’s state championship. Zauhar-Kurr won a state title, while Fehr earned bronze.
With this year’s Hawks missing that top-end talent to carry them to success, Craighead knew this season would be about adaptability. About drawing the best out of each member of his roster.
“They were still leaders and still practicing with us, Zach and Samantha,” Craighead said. “But it’s different when they’re not in there racing, when they’re not carrying a relay, and they’re not the one person where ‘oh Zach or Samantha’s gonna pull away in the breaststroke,’ so we had to create a new identity, and we found it today. They found it this meet — really came into their own.”
While the Hawks managed to continually find that improvement, this championship also serves as a measuring stick for the future.
Four of the Hawks who competed in individual events are freshman. Cameryn Clendenen, Anastasia Hays, Ashley May and Leo Gao were Hawks freshmen who competed in the relays. The hope is the experience of racing at these championships will show them what it will take to get even further next year.
So that next season, maybe the Hawks will be racing for first in the right heat.
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TOP PHOTO: Freshman Larwence Thomas during his 200-yard butterfly race. Thomas finished sixth, tied with Makenzie Duffin for the best result for the Hawk swimmers. (Photo by Jakob Arnarsson/ The Express)
Jakob Arnarsson is the Managing Editor and Sports Editor of The Express. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @JakobA2004
