Led by multi-event winner Rodrigo Baca (Kennedy HS), the Cerritos College men's swimming team finished in third place at the Golden West Invitational on Saturday. The Falcons finished with 156 team points and also had one second place and four third place finishes. They will host their South Coast Conference opener on Friday at 12:30 p.m. against Mt. San Antonio College and El Camino College.

Baca, who also swam on four relay teams, earned first place finishes in both the 50-yard butterfly and 50-yard backstroke. In the fly, his time of 24.78 edged out Taylor Lungo of Golden West College, while his time of 25.85 in the 50-yard backstroke was good enough to hold off Erick Fathoni of Riverside City College. Baca almost picked up a third first place finish, but had to settle for second place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.39.

The day opened with the 200-yard medley relay team of Josh Guzman (Warren HS), Billy Catton (La Quinta HS), Baca and Kevin Elizarraraz (Buena Park HS) posting a third place time of 1:45.09, while the same quartet picked up a third place in the 400-yard medley relay with a clocking of 3:58.68. Guzman (backstroke), Catton (breaststroke), Baca (butterfly) and Elizarraraz (freestyle) competed in the same events in both races.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the foursome of Baca, Brent Buchan (Kennedy HS), Elizarraraz and Matt Farias (Downey HS) posted a third place time of 1:33.64, with the same four swimmers concluding the day with a fourth place time of 3:33.63 in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Guzman turned in several strong individual performances, as he took third place in the 100-yard backstroke (59.59), while his time of 1:58.19 put him in seventh place in the 200-yard freestyle. He also came in ninth place in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:20.90, with teammate Colson Morrow (Long Beach Millikan HS) was right behind in 10th place at 5:27.18. As for Elizarraraz, he posted a fifth place time of 1:04.65 in the 100-yard breaststroke, while he came in ninth place in the 100-yard freestyle in 51.52. Farias swam the 50-yard butterfly in 27.23 to come in seventh place, while Catton turned in a ninth place time of 30.34 in the 50-yard breaststroke.