The day before competing in the Pasadena Invitational, the Cerritos College women's swimming team finished in second place at the Golden West Invitational. The Falcons, who only took part in seven of the 23 events, but still compiled 143.50 team points, which put them in eighth place over the course of the two-day event. Cerritos will now send their divers to the South Coast Conference Championships, which will take place this weekend at El Camino College.

In the lone relay race for the Falcons, the team of sophomore Yuridia Vela (Schurr HS), sophomore Katherine Gabayeron (Cerritos HS), freshman Raquel Gabayeron (Cerritos HS) and freshman Angela Covarrubias (Paramount HS) turned in the seventh fastest time of 2:01.22.

Raquel Gabayeron did earn a fifth place in the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 27.83, while her 30.84 finish in the 50-yard backstroke put her in eighth place out of 65 entries. Also competing for Cerritos in that race were Vela (31.79) and Gabyeron (31.81), who came in 11th and 12th place, with Covarrubias tied for 15th place with a time of 32.63. In the 200-yard IM, Raquel Gabayeron's time of 2:24.63 put her in 11th place with Covarrubias in 16th place at 2:34.65 and freshman Teresa Zuniga (California HS) earning a 17th place finish in 2:35.18.

There was a tight bunch of swimmers in the 200-yard freestyle and comprised the fourth through eighth place finishers with Katherine Gabayeron coming in seventh place at 2:04.69. The fourth place time of 2:04.40 was turned in by Sabrina Hatzer of Los Angeles Valley College, while Gabayeron was just .29 seconds away from moving up four places. The Gabayeron sisters finished 11th and 12th in the 50-yard breaststroke, with Katherine's time of 34.47 edging Raquel, who touched up in 34.74.

In one of the final events of the day, three of the four entries in the 400-yard IM were Cerritos swimmers, with Katherine Gabayeron easily winning in a time of 5:08.33, which was 12 seconds ahead of Raquel Gabayeron, with Vela coming in fourth place.

Photo by Daryl Peterson