Getting their first look at the rest of the South Coast Conference, the Cerritos College men's swimming team came in third place at the East Los Angeles Pentathlon on Friday. The Falcons finished with 210 team points out of the eight schools and trailed only Mt. San Antonio College (248.5 points) and El Camino College (246.33 points). The team will now compete in the Golden West Invitational on Friday, while the divers will be at Mt. San Antonio College for their diving competition.

Freshman Joshua Owens (Kennedy HS) led the Falcons in the pentathlon, as he earned a fourth place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (49.82) and 100-yard butterfly (54.69), while his time of 59.41 in the 100-yard backstroke earned him a sixth place finish. The best finish on the day for a Cerritos swimmer was turned in by freshman Eugene Runas (Long Beach Millikan HS), who finished in second place in the 100-yard breaststroke with a clocking of 1:01.39. He was beat out for first place by El Camino's Hogan Inscore, who finished in a time of 1:00.32.

Also swimming well was sophomore Enrico Hidalgo (Kennedy HS), who was a close fifth place behind Owens in the 100-yard freestyle, with a time of 49.85, while freshman Nathan Umpornpuckdi (Kennedy HS), whose time of 1:05.63 earned him a seventh place in the 100-yard breaststroke, while his clocking of 55.31 put him in fifth place behind Owens in the 100-yard butterfly. Runas, who also swam that event, took eighth in a time of 56.39. The trio also performed well in the 200-yard IM, with Runas (2:05.35) taking sixth and Umpornpuckdi (2:08.61) and Owens (2:09.25) placing ninth and 11th, respectively.

In the diving competiton the following day at El Camino College, sophomore Scott Robles (Murrieta Valley HS) came in second place in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competition. He finished second behind Shane Guerrero of El Camino in both events, with only nine points separating them in the 3-meter event.