The Cerritos College men's swimming team opened South Coast Conference competition on Wednesday with two victories against El Camino College (87-43) and Mt. San Antonio College (67-64). The Falcons will now head up north to compete in the Cuesta Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

    Freshman Tristan Friend (Liberty Christian HS) led the Falcons with wins in three events and also swam the opening leg of a relay team that came in first place. Joining Friend in first place in individual events were freshman Nikos Kostianis (Downey HS), who also won three events and swam in the same relay race, while freshman Torrance Lee (Cerritos HS) won one event. As for Friend, he opened the day with a first place in the 200-yard freestyle race in a time of 1:49.89, while freshman teammate Jimmy Quintana (Montebello HS) placed fourth in the race. In the 200-yard butterfly, Friend beat his closest competitor by 16 seconds with a time of 2:03.40, which established a new school record. Coming in second place was teammate Eugene Takagi (Kennedy HS). The third individual win for Friend came in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:58.25, with teammate Eddie Kim (Sunny Hills HS) placing third

    As for Kostianis, he won the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 53.91, and left six seconds between him and the second place finisher. It moved him closer to the school record of 53.19, set by Ryan Kelly in 1999. Kostainis also won the 200-yard backstroke and finished with a time of 2:13.99, with teammate Austin Cooper (Downey HS) coming in third place. The third win for Kostianis was in the 100-yard butterfly, where he finished the race in 52.91. Both Friend and Kostainis were joined by Kim and freshman Jose Aguirre (Downey HS) to win the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:25.95.

     Lee picked up his win in the 200-yard breaststroke and posted a time of 1:10.98, while freshman diver Anthony Mayfield (Norwalk HS) won the 1-meter diving with 211.60 points, while freshman Steven Pavon (Bell HS) placed third with 111.05 points.