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Cerritos College freshman swimmer
Nikos Kostianis and swimming coach
Joe Abing celebrate after winning
the state championship at Ohlone
College. |
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Nikos competing in the 200-yard
butterfly and on his way to a
new school record and state
championship at Ohlone College. |
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Cerritos
College freshman swimmer
Nikos Kostianis (Downey HS)
broke three individual school records and
swam a leg of another that broke a record at
the state championships this past weekend at
Ohlone College. Kostianis also went on to
win the state championship in the 200-yard
butterfly, while coming in a close second
place in the 100-yard backstroke and third
place in the 100-yard butterfly. As a
result, the Falcons placed 12th at the state
championships with 108 team points, with
Orange Coast College winning the state
title.
In the 200-yard
butterfly, Kostianis turned in the fastest
time in the qualifying round and then beat
it by over four seconds, in registering a
new school record time of 1:51.48. The time
breaks his own record of 1:55.48 that he set
at the Cuesta Invitational earlier in the
season. Freshman teammate
Tristan Friend (Liberty
Christian HS) joined him in the race
and finished 10th overall with a time of
1:58.88. Kostianis had the fastest
qualifying time in the 100-yard backstroke
(52.02), and even though he topped that in
the finals with a school record time of
51.57, it was still short of the 51.21 that
Joe Krone from Orange Coast College turned
in. His time of 51.57 beats his old record
of 51.61 that he set at the South Coast
Conference Championships.
In his third individual
event, Kostianis placed third in the
100-yard butterfly and his time of 50.36
beat the old school record of Ben
Garcia, who registered a time of
50.49 at the state championships in 1996.
Swimming in two
individual events was sophomore
Eddie Kim (Cerritos HS),
who placed 12th in the 200-yard backstroke
and 14th in the 400-yard individual medley.
After the first two laps in the 200-yard
backstroke, Kim was in last place, but
turned on the jets and finished strong to
place 12th out of the 16 swimmers with a
time of 2:02.34. As for the 400-yard
individual medley, Kim turned in the slowest
time of the 16 swimming in the prelims, but
shaved four seconds off his time to post a
4:26.79 and come in 14th place in the
finals.
Friend also qualified in
three events, but aside from his 10th place
in the 200-years butterfly, he did not
advance in the 200-yard freestyle and
200-yard individual medley races.
Additionally, freshman diver
Anthony Mayfield (Norwalk
HS) competed in the 1-meter diving and
posted a 13th place finish with 255.40
points.
In the relay races, the
800-yard freestyle team of Kostianis,
freshman
Torrence Lee (Cerritos HS),
Kim and Friend recorded a time of 7:15.87,
which not only put them in ninth place in
the finals, but it also broke the school
record. The old record time of 7:18.03 was
set by the same quartet at the conference
championships. In the 400-yard medley relay,
the team of Kostianis, Lee, Friend and
sophomore
Jose Aguirre (Downey HS)
placed 12th overall with a time of 4:43.89,
while the 400-yard freestyle relay team came
in 13th place in 3:19.14. They were
comprised of Kostianis, Aguirre, Lee and
Friend. The only relay team not to swim in
the finals was the 200-yard medley relay.
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