Competing in only eight events at the Pasadena Invitational on Saturday, the Cerritos College men's swimming team earned 129 team points, which put them in ninth place. The Falcons, who swam in the Golden West Invitational the day before, limited their entries to eight out of the 20 events. The team will now send their divers to the South Coast Conference Championships, which will take place this weekend at El Camino College.

It was sophomore diver Scott Robles (Murrieta Valley HS) who helped Cerritos earn big points at Pasadena, as he won the 1-meter event and came in sixth place in the 3-meter diving competition. Robles edged conference rival Shane Guerrero of El Camino College by compiling 252.35 points, which was 10 points better than Guerrero. The sixth place finish by Robles in the 3-meter diving was the highest of any diver from the SCC.

In the swimming events, the quartet of freshman Joshua Owens (Kennedy HS), sophomore Joshua Hanein (Warren HS/Steven Institute of Technology, NJ CC), freshman Marcus Delgado (La Serna HS) and freshman Eugene Runas (Long Beach Millikan HS) turned in an eighth place finish in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:44.05 and was barely edged by Orange Coast College, whose time of 1:44.00 earned them a seventh place.

Runas was in the hunt for the overall championship in the 100-yard breaststroke, but his time of 1:00.99 was bested by three other swimmers, which included SCC rival Aaron Clancey of Mt. San Antonio College (1:00.28), who came in second place. Delgado finished in 11th place out of 59 entries with a time of 1:03.23. Owens excelled in the 100-yard butterfly, as his time of 53.69 put him in fifth place out of 55 swimmers, with Runas coming in 10th place in 55.83, while freshman Nathan Umpornpuckdi (Kennedy HS) clocked in at 55.94, which was good for 10th place. 

In the 400-yard IM, Kenny deWinstanley (Santa Fe HS) placed 16th overall with a time of 4:57.35, while Owens saw his time of 59.77 in the 100-yard backstroke earn him 16th place.

Photo by Daryl Peterson