Hosting their first South Coast Conference meet, the Cerritos College women's swimming team split against the two teams they faced on Friday. The Falcons posted a 156-97 win over El Camino College, but suffered a 161-103 setback at the hands of Mt. San Antonio. After taking a week off, the team will host both East Los Angeles College and Chaffey College on March 15 at 12:30 p.m. in another conference meet.

A pair of first place finishes and four second places helped Cerritos earn their win. The day started with the quartet of Carolina Medrano (Schurr HS), Jahnavi Shah (Cerritos HS), Joanna Porras (Warren HS) and Lizbeth Ramirez (Sunny Hills HS) winning the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 2:09.94, which was five seconds ahead of second place Mt. SAC. Ramirez also picked up a first place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with her time of 26.43, with freshman teammate Elisabeth Stansell (Los Alamitos HS) in third place with a clocking of 30.13.

It was a second place finish for Ramirez in the 100-yard freestyle, as her time of 1:00.47 was five seconds off the winning time of 55.86, set by Ida Due of El Camino. As for Medrano, she earned a trio of second place finishes on the day. It started in the 100-yard backstroke, as she recorded a time of 1:11.68, while she touched up in 2:39.83 in the 200-yard backstroke. The final second place came in the 500-yard freestyle, as she recorded a time of 6:15.91, which was :19 seconds behind eventual winner Colleen Gamboa of Mt. San Antonio.

Freshman Nine Wathanasayhee (Los Alamitos HS) posted a third place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, where she was in a battle for second place. She settled for a time of 2:27.33, which barely edged Stansell, who took fourth place in 2:27.97. In the 200-yard butterfly, Porras finished in third place in a time of 2:47.51, which was less than four seconds from taking second place, and earned another third place finish in the 100-yard butterfly, where she was edged out for second place by less than a second with her time of 1:14.49. Shah collected third place points in the 200-yard backstroke when she touched up in 3:10.90, as did sophomore Karol Martinez (Warren HS), who posted a time of 2:46.71, which was a second behind Hunter Leos of Mt. San Antonio (2:46.52).

Photos by Daryl Peterson