Competing against some of the tougher teams in Southern California, the Cerritos College men’s swimming team compiled 258 team points to come in sixth place at the Pasadena Invitational over the weekend. Diablo Valley College won the invitational with 727.5 team points, while a pair of South Coast Conference teams finished ahead of the Falcons. This weekend, the team’s divers will compete in the SCC Diving Championships, which will take place at El Camino College.

    Turning in a strong weekend was freshman Louie Espinoza (Montebello HS), who swam five individual events and competed in four relay races. In the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.35) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:14.95), he turned in fifth place finishes, while his time of 54.41 in the 100-yard butterfly earned him a sixth place finish. Espinoza also placed eighth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:01.83) and was 23^rd in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.97.

    In the 400-yard medley relay, Espinoza swam the second leg, with sophomores Nikos Kostianis (Downey HS) and Tristan Friend (Liberty Christian HS) joining freshman Mark Zuniga (Downey HS) to come in fifth place with a time of 3:43.13. The same quartet competed in the 400-yard freestyle relay and came in seventh place with a time of 3:23.09, with Kostianis, sophomore Nick Young (Kennedy HS), Friend and Espinoza checking in with a seventh place finish in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:43.21.

    For Kostianis, he was held out of his stronger races, but did compete in several other competitions. He checked in the 10^th place showings in the 50-yard freestyle (22.34) and 100-yard freestyle (49.28), while his time of 2:03.79 was good for 11^th in the 200-yard individual medley. Friend had the highest individual finish with his second place showing in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:02.81 and also placed seventh in the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.51) and 10^th in the 500-yard freestyle (4:57.42). The longer races are the strength for sophomore Billy Smith (Cypress HS), who came in eighth place in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 19:00.30, with freshman Adam Arambula (Kennedy HS) finishing in 19:46.71, good for 10^th place.

    Arambula also teamed with freshman Ryan Leung (Wan Chai HS, China), Smith and Zuniga to come in seventh place in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 8:14.48, while Zuniga and sophomore Steven Baughman (Western HS) both competed in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving.