The Cerritos College women's swimming team won seven events on Friday in their first South Coast Conference meet of the season. The end result was a pair of victories, as the Falcons (2-0) defeated El Camino College (201-74) and Long Beach City College (157-114). The team will now travel to Cuesta College for an invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Leading the way for Cerritos was sophomore Katherine Gabayeron (Cerritos HS), who won three events and also swam a leg of a first place relay team. The day started with freshman Carla Harvey (Potomac Falls, VA HS), Gabyeron, freshman Raquel Gabayeron (Cerritos HS) and freshman Angela Covarrubias (Paramount HS) beating out LB City in the 200-yard medley relay by less than one second with a time of 1:59.72. Katherine Gabayeron followed that with an easy win in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:21.64.

She wasn't done there, as that was followed with a nine-second win in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:04.79 and capped the day off by winning the 500-yard freestyle in 5:36.14, which was 25 seconds ahead of her closest competition.

Raquel Gabayeron won a pair of events for the Falcons, as she captured the 100-yard butterfly in 1:02.80, with Harvey in third place at 1:08.86. Gabayeron's time of 1:06.44 was good enough to win the 100-yard IM, while Harvey took third place at 1:11.42. It was Harvey's time of 1:06.66 in the 100-yard backstroke that won the event, while sophomore Yuridia Vela (Schurr HS) took third place in 1:10.31. Vela also came in second place in the 1-meter diving competition with 126.15 points.

Also swimming well on the day was Covarrubias, who placed second in the 50-yard backstroke (32.72), with sophomore teammate Janine Loera (Pioneer HS) finishing in third place at 33.61. Sophomore Sharon Ku (Cerritos HS) finished in second place in the 50-yard breaststroke in a time of 35.79, with freshman Claudia Martinez (Roosevelt HS) in third place in 37.94. Freshman Melina Hernandez (Cerritos HS) posted a time of 26.85 to come in second place in the 50-yard freestyle, which was just ahead of Covarrubias, who finished third in 27.62, while the time of 59.70 put Covarrubias in second place in the 100-yard freestyle. Freshman Teresa Zuniga (California HS) finished in second place in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:19.50 and Hernandez finished third in the 50-yard butterfly in a time of 31.24.

Photo by Daryl Peterson