On the strength of two first
place and a second place finish by sophomore
Nikos Kostianis (Downey HS),
the Cerritos College men’s swimming team
finished in sixth place in the 22-team Mt.
San Antonio Invitational over the weekend.
The Falcons compiled 228.5 team points and
beat the four of the five other South Coast
Conference teams that were in the meet.
Ventura College won the meet with 546.5 team
points, with SCC opponent Chaffey College
placing second with 470.5 team points.
Cerritos will now compete in their first
conference meet of the season, as they
travel to El Camino College on Friday to
face the Warriors and Chaffey.
For Kostianis, he won the
100-yard backstroke in a time of 53.16,
while he posted a time of 1:57.81 in the
200-yard backstroke. Last year, Kostianis
came in second place in the state
championships in the 100-yard backstroke,
while he owns the pool record at Mt. SAC in
the 200-yard backstroke at 1:52.82. He also
earned the team points in the 100-yard
butterfly with a second place finish in
52.49 and was beat out for first place by
.05 seconds. Kostianis, who also swam on
three relay teams, tied for sixth place in
the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 22.44
Sophomore
Tristan Friend (Liberty Christian
HS) finished in ninth place in the
200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:08.72,
while his clocking of 2:02.02 in the
200-yard individual medley was good for 10th
place. He also came in 11th in
the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.65), while he
placed 18th in the 400-yard
individual medley in 4:37.33. The 100-yard
breaststroke saw freshman
Louie Espinoza (Montebello HS)
come in eighth place in the 100-yard
breaststroke in a time of 1:03.89, while he
came in 20th in the 200-yard
individual medley (2:09.74) and 23rd
in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.16.
Others who performed well in their
specialty included sophomore
Billy Smith (Cypress HS), who
came in 10th place in the
1650-yard freestyle in 19:00.40, sophomore
Kevin Nguyen (Cerritos HS),
who placed 17th in the 100-yard
backstroke in 1:01.13 and sophomore
Nick Young (Kennedy HS),
whose time of 2:31.67 was good for 21st
place in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The
200-yard medley relay team came in 5th
place in a time of 1:44.38, with the
400-yard medley relay team placing sixth in
3:48.02. In the 200-yard freestyle relay,
the Falcons turned in a time of 1:36.30,
goof for 17th place.
