The Cerritos College men's swimming team improved their record to 6-1 on the year after defeating Pasadena City College (82-47) and Los Angeles Trade-Tech College (118-10) in a three-team South Coast Conference meet on Friday. The team will now compete in the Pasadena Invitational next weekend.

    Over the course of the meet, the Falcons won nine events, with sophomore All-American Nikos Kostianis (Downey HS) coming out on top in three events, while sophomore Tristan Friend (Liberty Christian HS) won two. Kostianis picked up his wins in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.13), 200-yard backstroke (2:13.14) and 100-yard butterfly (51.69). He was joined in the 100-yard backstroke by sophomore Kevin Nguyen (Cerritos HS), who finished in a close second place with a time of 1:00.74, while Nguyen placed third in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:21.60.

    As for Friend, his first place finishes came in the 200-yard freestyle (1:56.39) and 500-yard freestyle (4:59.25), with a teammate finishing right behind in second place in both races. It was freshman Mark Zuniga (Downey HS) in the 200-yard freestyle (1:59.38) and sophomore David Romero (Mexico) in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:50.51. The duo of Kostianis and Friend were joined by Zuniga and freshman Louie Espinoza (Montebello HS) to win the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:24.43.

    Others turning in first place finishes were sophomore Billy Smith (Cypress HS) in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 19:03.72, while teammates Ryan Leung (Wan Chai HS, China) and Dennis Hernandez (Gahr HS) finished in second and third place, with freshman Miguel Villalobos (Whittier HS) winning the 200-yard butterfly (2:17.77). Romero finished the race in second place. Freshman diver Nashon Hull (Bellflower HS) won the 1-meter diving with 184.25 points, while teammates Luis Salgado (California HS) and Steven Baughman (Western HS) were the other two competitors.