Freshman Carmen Ung has redefined how fast a Lancers swimmer can go in the breaststroke. Ung once again broke her own Pasadena City College women's swim team records in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke and swam the second-fastest 50 freestyle in school history at the CCCAA State Championships held May 2-4 at De Anza College.
All year, Ung and Orange Coast College swimmer Meghan Kluck had been neck and neck for the best times in the 100 breaststroke. On Friday's second day of the meet, Ung was just edged out for the gold and took silver with a new PCC record of 1:03.20 behind Kluck's 1:03.05. During the morning prelims, Ung had broken her South Coast Conference meet mark of 1:04.33 with a 1:03.90. Prior to Ung, the best PCC time in the 100 breaststroke belonged to Arolyn Basham of 1:07.55 in 2014. Ung shaved a remarkable 3.65 seconds off that previous record.
On Thursday, Ung (Mark Keppel High) opened the meet by earning a fourth place medal in the 50 freestyle with her season-best time of 24.53 seconds. That was just .05 behind PCC record-holder Ariahn Givens who swam 24.48 in 2016.
On Saturday's final day, Ung saved perhaps her greatest performance of the season for last. At the SCC Finals two weeks ago, Ung swam a 2:24.72 to break the school record in the 200 breaststroke set by Jocelyn Jo just last year of 2:26.77. In the state final, Ung destroyed that conference mark by four full seconds. Her 2:20.72 is a new PCC standard. The race featured the top four swimmers all far exceeding their top seed times and it resulted with Ung taking the fourth place medal. Allan Hancock's Izzie Fraire won the event in 2:19.62.
Ung scored 47 points to officially score PCC in 21st place out of 36 scoring colleges. Ung was guided this year under Lancers head coach Terry Stoddard. Going back to 2013, Stoddard has coached six state champion winners (four by Melissa Cienega in 2017-18) and at least a silver medalist for now seven years running. Ung extended a streak of PCC athletes winning South Coast Swimmer of the Year honors, also a 7-year current streak.