Heimback wins 3 races in PCAC finals, is conference swimmer of year

SAN MARCOS (4-21-2018) -- Palomar's Jordann Heimback has been honored as Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Women's Swimmer of the Year after she was the only women's triple winner in the conference finals that concluded a three-day run on Saturday at Wallace Memorial Pool.

Heimback, a sophomore out of Fallbrook High School, won the 50-yard freestyle in 5:14.49, the100 butterfly in 59.28 and the 200 butterfly in 2:10.20. She also teamed with Rebekah Blackburn, Violet Stewart and Sydney Thomas to place first in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:38.80 as she led the Comets to a second-place team finish.

San Diego Mesa, the only conference school with divers, put the women's championship away early by scoring 894 points. The Comets scored 687 points in finishing second, followed by Grossmont with 425 points, Southwestern with 380 points and Crafton Hills College, which only competes in the PCAC in swimming, with 19 points.

Blackburn was the only other Palomar swimmer to place first in the women's meet, bringing home a gold medal in the 100 freestyle in 53.87.

Mesa is also the only men's team in the conference with divers and used those points to jump out to a huge lead early as the Olympians won the team championship easily with 1,049 points. Grossmont (841 points) placed second. Palomar was third with 535 points, followed by Southwestern with 185 points and Crasfton Hills with 47 points.

Jared Altman was the only Comet to win events in the men's division. He came from behind to touch out Mesa's highlyregarded Blake Wixom 4:46.49 to 4:47.00 in the 500 freestyle, and also finished first in the 1650 freestyle in 17:10.83.