The Santa Rosa Junior College men’s and women’s swimming teams paid for the price for their victories at the Big 8 Conference Championships last week in Sacramento.

And the price was about $8,000 — the amount of money the Bear Cubs raised to pay for the 40 Blue Seventy swimsuits they competed in.

The Blue Seventy, like the LZR Racer, is one of the technologically advanced suits that has cut performance times and sent a slew of world records tumbling in the past year.

Given the price of the suits — a Blue Seventy runs about $300 and can be worn only about eight times — the coaches in the Big 8 voted on whether they should be used in comeptition this year.

SRJC coach Jill McCormick voted against using them, but was in the minority.

And once she lost that war, she began the battle to raise enough money to buy the suits.

There was a car wash, and a pizza night and the Bear Cubs worked the snack bar at football and basketball games. McCormick bought about 15 of the suits used and got them at half-price.

“We had to be very resourceful,” McCormick said. “I called in every favor I had … We called, e-mailed and begged our alumni for help.”

The hard work was evidently worth it.

At the Big 8 meet, the men’s and women’s teams combined to break 22 school records, 11 Big 8 records and one state record.