A trio of relay teams earned second place finishes, which helped the Cerritos College men's swimming team come in second place at the Golden West Invitational on Friday. The Falcons, who will now compete in the Pasadena Invitational on Saturday in their final regular season meet, compiled 704.5 team points, which trailed only the host Rustlers, who finished with 951.5 team points. The South Coast Conference Championships will take place at Chaffey College in two weeks.

The swim team wasn't the only squad in action, as the duo of sophomores Scott Robles (Murrieta Valley HS) and Daric Johnson (Whittier HS) were at the Pasadena Invitational. Robles defeated all 21 competitors in the 1-meter event to come in first place with 252.35 points. He edged conference rival Shane Guerrero of El Camino College, who came in second place with 242.95 points. Robles took seventh in the 3-meter event with 177.15 points, while Johnson was eighth in the 1-meter (168.00) and ninth in the 3-meter (160.05).

The day started for the Cerritos swim team with the quartet of sophomore Enrico Hidalgo (Kennedy HS), freshman Eugene Runas (Long Beach Millikan HS), freshman Marcus Delgado (La Serna HS) and freshman Joshua Owens (Kennedy HS) recording a time of 1:43.09 to come in second place in the 200-yard medley relay. It was less than four seconds behind the winning Golden West team, and it edged Long Beach City by less than one second, as they came in third place. As for the team of Hidalgo, Runas, freshman Nathan Umpornpuckdi (Kennedy HS) and Owens, they took second place in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:52.18, and held off LB City by 1.45 seconds, with the Rustlers winning by :11 seconds. The 200-yard freestyle relay saw Owens. Runas, Delgado and Hidalgo turn in a time of 1:31.64 to earn another second place.

Individually, Runas came in third place in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:36.97, with Umpornpuckdi in fourth place with a clocking of 4:43.36. As for Owens, he recorded a fourth place time of 1:52.16 in the 200-yard freestyle, with Umpornpuckdi taking second place with a time of 2:082.9 in the 200-yard butterfly. Freshman teammate Jacob Ramsaur (La Serna HS) took fourth place in the race at 2:26.71. It was a second place finish for Runas in the 200-yard breaststroke, as his time of 2:19.27 was only bested by Ian Mulback of Southwestern College, who won the race in 2:18.94. Freshman Kenny deWinstanley (Santa Fe HS) was fourth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:35.05, with Owens placing sixth in the 100-yard freestyle (50.81).

Photo by Daryl Peterson