Over the weekend, the Cerritos College men's swimming team recorded more points than any other school at the Waterman Festival, which was held at Palomar College. After the pentathlon on Friday, where the Falcons saw sophomore Rodrigo Baca (Kennedy HS) placed second overall, the team amassed 679 points, which was 120 points ahead of second place San Diego Mesa College, who had 459 team points. The team will compete in the South Coast Conference Pentathlon on Friday at Mt. San Antonio College.

In the Palomar Pentathlon, Baca's combined time in the 50-yard butterfly, 50-yard backstroke, 50-yard breaststroke, 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard IM was 2:41.71 and was only bested by AJ Sparks of Crafton Hills College, who turned in a combined time of 2:38.40. Baca recorded the second best 50-yard butterfly time (24.29), while his clocking of 26.44 in the 50-yard backstroke checked also in as the second best time. Once again, he posted the second best time in the 50-yard freestyle (22.39) and 100-yard IM, which all trailed Sparks. Baca had the fourth fastest time in the 50-yard breaststroke at 30.69.

Finishing 16th out of the 77 swimmers that competed in all of the events was freshman Jorge De Loera (St. Pius/St. Matthias Academy HS) at 2:57.47, while freshman Jonathan Butz (Los Altos HS) recorded a combined time of 2:59.49 to come in 19th place overall.

On Saturday, the team competed in the Waterman Relays, where they compiled their team points. In the 50-yard freestyle, Baca posted a faster time of 22.17, but saw Sparks touch up in 22.15 to come in first place. Butz (24.26) placed fifth, while freshman Nicholas Herrera (Norwalk HS) posted a seventh place time of 24.80. Sophomore Colson Morrow (Long Beach Millikan HS) finished first in the 400-yard IM with a clocking of 4:38.27, with De Loera right behind him in 4:45.42 to come in second place.

Baca did earn a first place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, as he turned in a time of 56.99, while sophomore teammate Joshua Guzman (Warren HS) was the third place finisher in 1:04.38. In a deep 50-yard freestyle race, Baca posted a sixth place time of 23.20, with Butz also swimming well with his time of 24.55. In the 100-yard butterfly, freshman Jesus Murguia (Downey HS) was locked in a tight race and settled for sixth place in a time of 59.84. Morrow (11:40.54) and Guzman (11:41.55) placed third and fourth, respectively in the 1000-yard freestyle.