In their South Coast Conference opener, the Cerritos College men's swimming team opened with a pair of wins on Friday. The Falcons recorded wins over both Long Beach City College (155-90) and Chaffey College (179-72). The team will travel to Mt. San Antonio College next Friday to take on the Mounties and Rio Hondo College in a 10:00 a.m. conference match.

Although the Falcons won just four of the 15 events, they scored enough points with their second and third place finishes. In the longest race of the day, sophomore Colson Morrow (Long Beach Millikan HS) came close to matching his personal best time, as he recorded a winning time of 10.30.87, while sophomore teammate Joshua Guzman (Warren HS) was a third place finisher with a clocking of 11:40.50.

The 200-yard backstroke had the tandem of freshmen Nicholas Herrera (Norwalk HS) and Mario Vanzillotta (Colegio Palaz, Brazil) take the top two spots, with Herrera beating the rest of the field by five seconds. His time of 2:36.60 was followed by Vanzillotta, who posted a time of 2:41.33. It was a win by sophomore Rodrigo Baca (Kennedy HS) in the 100-yard butterfly that also secured the double win for Cerritos, as his time of 55.24 was three seconds ahead of freshman teammate Jesus Murguia (Downey HS), who came in second place at 58.12.

The day ended with the 400-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Jorge De Loera (St. Pius/St. Matthias Academy HS), freshman Jonathan Butz (Los Altos HS), Herrera and freshman John Gomez (La Serna HS) turning in a winning time of 3:41.81.

Also swimming well was Baca in the 100-yard backstroke, as he recorded a second place time of 55.63, while freshman Jose Hurtado (Cerritos HS) placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:07.74, with Herrera a close third at 1:09.87. Murguia earned second place points with his time of 2:10.98 in the 200-yard butterfly, while Cerritos finished second through fourth in the 50-yard freestyle. Baca (23.04), Butz (23.93) and freshman Juan Anguiano (Kennedy HS), who placed fourth in 24.61, were crucial to the team earning points in bunches.

Butz (52.49) and Gomez (57.38) finished second and third, respectively, in the 100-yard freestyle, with Guzman recording a second place time of 2:20.10 in the 200-yard backstroke. Morrow, who won the 1000-yard freestyle, placed second in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:11.23.