By Javier Cabrera / Editor in Chief
Take a swim (Lauren Garcia / Staff Photographer)
By Javier Cabrera / Editor in Chief
After a year of construction, Riverside City College’s aquatics complex is now open for matches and meets for the swimming, diving, and water polo teams.
The complex had its grand opening on Jan. 22. The event was open to the public and visitors got a chance to get autographs and meet with former US Olympians Greg Louganis, Sippy Woodhead, Tuesday Middaugh, Laura Wilkinson, Stephanie and Barbara Nesbitt, Li Delaing, Genai Kerr and swimming world champion silver medalist Tyler Clary from Riverside.
There were many family friendly activities, vendors and sponsors. There were also demonstrations of swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo.
Also on hand for the celebrations was RCC’s athletic director, Barry Meier, who was excited for what’s to come in the near future with the brand new aquatics complex.
“The teams have been successful in the past and I think with this facility it’s only going to lead to more successes and everyone within athletics is proud and happy,” he said. “It’s spectacular. I am really proud to be a small part of it.”
The new complex features a 65-meter all-deep pool, includes seven diving boards from one meter to 10-meter platform, team and coach’s rooms, two hydraulic lifts for disabled access and grandstand seating. The two Cutler pools are a part of the complex as well.
“To come into something like this, a state of the art facility, where we actually can host our own meets and games—we actually never had a true meet or home game because we had to travel to another place to host so that is going to mean a lot to the athletes—that is something they can call their home,” said coach Doug Finfrock.
With the complex it is now large enough to accommodate all aquatic teams and can now have regional, state and national competitions and expects to attract thousands.
“It means a lot for our community because there are a lot of organizations out there and there is not a lot of pool space for all of them, so to have something like this that a lot of different people can have access to, it’s going to make a big difference to Riverside in general,” Finfrock said.
“It’s definitely going to help us with our recruiting. A facility like this is going to bring in a lot more people, a lot more talent,” he said.
