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THS girls swim ousts Pitman in CCC finale
Girls Swim 1
Turlock Highs Emmerson Stempson concluded Thursdays final CCC league dual meet with a personal best time in the 100 breast and tallied three total victories. - photo by CANDY PADILLA/The Journal

The Turlock High girls swim team ended their Central California Conference career with a win against crosstown rivals Pitman High, after a final score of 116-70.

“The varsity girls are swimming really well for this time of the season,” said Turlock head coach Anne Cornell. “The team will begin to prepare next week for the Conference meet that will be held next Friday at Golden Valley.  The swimmers are continuing to improve at different levels throughout the current swim season and making adjustments to starts/turns and stroke technique.”

“I'm so proud of my varsity teams,” said Pitman head coach Erica Crain. “They are amazing athletes and kids and I couldn't be more excited to be taking them to CCC (meet) next week at Golden Valley. I know they are going to do amazing.”

Both varsity girl teams were 3-1 going into their final two dual meets, but from there their paths diverged.

Turlock captured back-to-back wins to end the year in second with a record of 5-1.

Pitman went on to drop their next two meets to end the year with a CCC record of 3-3, placing them third in the standings.

On Thursday, Turlock managed to get the edge, but Pitman still had their standouts.

Joelle Lok of Pitman topped all in the 50 free after she clocked in at 26.7.

Lok also placed first in the 500 free with a time of 6:20.00.

In the 100 back, Leah Trainor took first with a time of 1:08.1, while Gabrielle Sotomayor followed in second at 1:08.9.

The Pride girls 400 free relay also placed first with a time of 4:04.00.

For Turlock, they saw multiple personal best performances.

Sierra Yandell (200 free), Lindsey Amos (100 fly), Sadie Bigler (200 IM) and Emmerson Stempson (100 breast) each bested their previous performance times in their respective events.

Yandell captured four victories, while Amos notched three and Stempson ended the day with three first place finishes.

“The girls are heading into our Conference meet seeded 2nd behind Merced.  We are swimming strong and excited for the challenge to compete with Merced,” Cornell added.

Next for both teams is the CCC diving event which will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday in Merced, followed by the CCC trials at 2 p.m. Friday at Golden Valley High.