W. Swimming: Cerritos takes fifth at conference championships

File Photo: Lindsey deHaas placed fifth at the conference championships in the 400-yard IM
File Photo: Lindsey deHaas placed fifth at the conference championships in the 400-yard IM

Over the weekend, the Cerritos College women's swimming team finished with 326 team points to come in fifth place at the South Coast Conference Championships. Competing in the three-day event at Mt. San Antonio College, the Falcons had two fourth place and three fifth place finishers. The team will find out on Monday if any of their swimmers qualified for the CCCAA State Championships.

Battling with rival Long Beach City College for fourth place, Cerritos hurt their chances when they were disqualified in the 800-yard freestyle relay, which cost them crucial points. The Vikings ended up in fourth place with 341 team points.

Leading the team over the weekend was sophomore Jackie Oliveros (Gahr HS), who placed in the top five in each of her three individual races, while also swimming in both of the team's relay races that scored them the most points. In the highly competitive 50-yard freestyle, Oliveros finished in fourth place with a time of 26.11, while checking in with fifth place times in the 100-yard backstroke (1:07.75) and 200-yard backstroke (2:29.85). She had the fourth best time in the 200-yard backstroke prelims at 2:28.71.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the foursome of freshman Karol Martinez (Warren HS), along with sophomores Vanessa Perez (Sonora HS), Breanna Zuniga (California HS) and Oliveros were clocked in 1:53.77, which put them in fourth place, while the 200-yard medley relay time of 2:13.84 turned in by Oliveros, freshman Hannah Thompson (Lakewood HS), Zuniga and Perez, put them in sixth place.

Perez recorded a seventh place time in the 100-yard freestyle (59.91) and earned the fifth fastest time of 59.57 in the prelims. She came in eighth place in the 200-yard freestyle with a clocking of 2:16.67. In the 400-yard IM, sophomore Lindsay deHaas (Hacienda Heights Wilson HS) recorded a fifth place time of 5:52.11, while teammate freshman Lesly Madrid (Long Beach Jordan HS) touched up in 6:18.83, which put her in seventh place. Zuniga posted a sixth place time in the 200-yard butterfly of 2:48.13, with deHaas taking seventh place in 3:00.55.