Led by several top five finishes at the Golden West Invitational on Friday, the Cerritos College men's swimming team finished in fourth place. The Falcons, who compiled 122 team points, finished in fourth out of the 10 schools that competed. They will now compete in their first South Coast Conference meet next Friday at Long Beach City College, as they take on the Vikings and Chaffey College. The meet was originally scheduled for the Falcons Aquatic Center, but construction forced the venue to be changed.

Leading the way for Cerritos were sophomores Jesus Rojas (Colegio Fray Luis Amigo, Venezuela) and Jason Ly (Villa Park HS), who each had a third place finish in an individual race, and swam a leg of three relay teams that finished in the top five.

As for Ly, his time of 27.48 in the 50-yard backstroke was within one stroke of taking first place, which was recorded in 27.30, while the second place time was 27.45. In the 50-yard butterfly, Rojas was barely edged out for first place, as his time of 25.73 was just off the winning time of 25.17.

The two also swam a leg of the 400-yard medley relay team that came in fourth place in a time of 3:57.22 and also consisted of freshman Nigel Rueda (Schurr HS) and sophomore Isiah Gaytan (Whittier HS). Both the 200-yard medley relay (1:47.25) and 400-yard freestyle relay (3:30.10) teams placed fifth in the day. The 200-yard medley team was comprised of Ly, Rueda, Gaytan and Rojas, with Rojas, Ly, Rueda and freshman Kaito Hori (Japan) swimming the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In the 100-yard backstroke, Ly posted a sixth place time of 59.10, with his clocking of 2:11.07 in the 200-yard IM putting him in eighth place. Rojas turned in a fifth place time in the 100-yard butterfly in 56.08, with Rueda earning eighth in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.88) and sixth in the 50-yard breaststroke in a time of 31.37. Sophomore Chris Martinez (Paramount HS) was right behind in 10th place at 33.14.

Gaytan swam the 500-yard freestyle and finished eighth in 5:17.60, while the time of 1:37.65 in the 200-yard freestyle by Rojas, Ly, Hori and Rueda also came in eighth place.