M. Swimming: School record falls at state championships

(L-R) Head Coach Joe Abing is joined by Marcus Delgado, Joshua Owens, Eugene Runas and Nathan Umpornpuckdi after they set a new school record in the 400-yard medley relay.

Posted: Apr 25, 2013

For the third time this season, the Cerritos College men's swimming team has set a new school record in a relay event. The Falcons, who are competing at the CCCAA State Championships at East Los Angeles College, broke the school record in the 400-yard medley relay and after the first day, the team is in 16th place with 24 team points. On Friday, the team will be represented in one relay event and one individual race.

Eugene Runas and the Falcons set a new school record in the 400-yard medley relay In setting the new school record in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:34.50, the all-freshman quartet of Joshua Owens (Kennedy HS), Eugene Runas (Long Beach Millikan HS), Nathan Umpornpuckdi (Kennedy HS) and Marcus Delgado (La Serna HS) placed 10th in the consolation round. They broke the old mark of 3:35.91, which was set in 2005 by Paul Tse, Richie Caldwell, Robbie Garcia and Sean Gutierrez. Both Owens and Delgado have been a part of all three relay school records that have been set this season.

In the first event for the men, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Owens, sophomore Joshua Hanein (Warren HS/Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ CC), Delgado and sophomore Enrico Hidalgo (Kennedy HS) placed 10th in the prelims and then finished 12th in the consolation championships with a time of 1:26.35. It was close to matching the school record time of 1:26.07 they set earlier in the year.

All of the events at the state championships cane be viewed live at http://takeitlive.tv/liveswim/?page_id=3539

Photos by Daryl Peterson