W. Swimming: Falcons split conference meet

Jackie Oliveros won three events, including both backstroke races
Jackie Oliveros won three events, including both backstroke races

Results

On Friday, the Cerritos College women's swimming team split their South Coast Conference dual meet in their first home event of the season. The Falcons (2-2) defeated Chaffey College, 121-106, but came up short against Long Beach City College, 131-102. The team will travel to El Camino College next Friday to take on the Warriors and Rio Hondo College in a 12:30 p.m. conference meet.

Highlighting the day for Cerritos was sophomore Jackie Oliveros (Gahr HS), who won three events. She defeated the field by nine second in the 100-yard backstroke with her time of 1:10.90, with sophomore Vanessa Perez (Sonora HS) in second place at 1:19.03. The two also competed in the 50-yard freestyle, with Oliveros registering a first place time time of 27.28, while Perez touched up in 29.17, good for third place. The duo also were the first two finishers in the 200-yard backstroke, with Oliveros winning the event in a time of 2:34.56, which was 16 seconds ahead of Perez's time of 2:50.18.

Sophomore Breanna Zuniga (California HS) also earned first place points for the Falcons, as she led from start to finish to win the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 6:30.89. In the meet's other long race, Zuniga took second place in the 1000-yard freestyle with a clocking of 13:18.27 and also added a second place finish in the 200-yard butterfly at 3:02.37. Earning third place in the 200-yard freestyle, freshman Megan Hernandez (Keystone Academy HS) posted a time of 2:32.41, while freshman Karol Martinez (Warren HS) posted a third place time of 1:05.19 in the 100-yard freestyle.

The team was poised to close out the day with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay, but were disqualified when Oliveras left early while swimming the anchor leg. The trio of Perez, Zuniga and Hernandez had the team in front by :14 seconds before the disqualification.

Photos by Daryl Peterson