The Cerritos College men’s
swimming team opened South Coast Conference
action on Friday and split their results
against two opponents. The Falcons (1-1)
defeated host El Camino College, 88-43,
while they dropped a 75-56 decision to
Chaffey College. This week, the team will
compete in the Cuesta Invitational.
Winning all three of his
individual races was sophomore
Nikos Kostianis (Downey HS),
as he bested nemesis Ryan Larson of Chaffey
in two of the races. In the 100-yard
backstroke, Kostianis registered a time of
53.47, which beat out Larson’s time of
54.20. In that race, freshman
Kevin Nguyen (Cerritos HS)
came in fourth place in a time of 1:02.07.
Kostianis also won the 200-yard backstroke
with a time of 2:01.51, which was over a
second faster than Larson, with freshman
David Romero (Mexico) placing
fourth. He finished the trifecta by
capturing the 100-yard butterfly with a time
of 51.91.
Freshman
Louie Espinoza (Montebello HS)
won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of
1:04.15, while sophomore
Tristan Friend (Liberty Christian
HS) came in second place in three
events. His time of 1:48.94 was the second
best time in the 200-yard freestyle, while
he placed second in the 200-yard butterfly
in 2:06.16 and in the 500-yard freestyle,
with a time of 5:00.91.
Freshman diver
Nashon Hull (Bellflower HS)
placed second in the 1-meter event with
164.50 and just missed out on winning, while
the duo of Espinoza and Nguyen placed second
and third, respectively in the 200-yard
individual medley. Others who swam well
included sophomore
Billy Smith (Cypress HS), who
came in third place in the 1000-yard
freestyle in 11:13.46, Espinoza, who placed
third in the 100-yard freestyle and freshman
Mark Zuniga (Downey HS), a
fourth place finisher in the 100-yard
freestyle.
