Sitting in second place after the second day of the South Coast Conference Championships, the Cerritos College women's swimming team settled for third place at the conclusion of the three-day meet. Held at the Falcon Aquatic Center, the team finished with 531 team points and trailed second place Pasadena City College by only 21 points. The Falcons will find out on Monday if any swimmers have qualified for the CCCAA State Championships, which will be held at East Los Angeles College on May 5-7.
Cerritos picked up a huge amount of points from their divers. Competing the week before, freshman Ambrosia Taylor came in first place in the 1-meter diving, while freshman Aliah Richardson (Paramount HS) won the 3-meter event and took second in the 1-meter competition. Sophomore Amanda Rabb (Gahr HS) finished in third in both events.
Those would be the best finishes for the Falcons in any other events, as the team recorded one third place finish and a pair of fourth place finishes. In the 200-yard freestyle freshman Sarah Orozco (Montebello HS) edged out Phoebe Lee of Pasadena City College for third place, as her time of 2:08.00 was just ahead of Lee's clocking of 2:08.38. The Falcons saw freshman Scarled Murillo (Lakewood HS) turn in her best time of 1:08.51 to come in fourth place, which was just a shade ahead of freshman Channon Owens (Kennedy HS) and her fifth place time of 1:08.62.
Sophomore Claudia Martinez (Roosevelt HS) took sixth place in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.72 and was less than a second away from taking fourth place. She followed that two days later with a seventh place time of 59.61 in the 100-yard freestyle. Owens also competed in the 200-yard butterfly and registered a sixth place time of 2:42.92. Freshman Valeria Barboza (Paramount HS) earned fifth place in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:16.22, with Orozco in sixth place at 1:16.30. Sixth place showings were also turned in by sophomore Anna Herrera (Rowland HS) in the 100-yard backstroke (1:10.61) and by freshman Maria Figueroa (Schurr HS) in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:52.80).
In the final event of the championships, the 400-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Desiree Estrada (Gahr HS), freshman Andrea Macapagal (Sonora HS), Murillo and Martinez touched up in 4:04.30 to come in fourth place. The 200-yard freestyle relay team turned in a time of 1:49.12 for fifth place and consisted of Macapagal, Murillo, Owens and Martinez.
Photos by Daryl Peterson