Cerritos College Athletics - 2009 Men's Swimming News: Team effort helps Falcons finish third

Despite not winning any events, the Cerritos College men's swimming team used a strong team effort to help them compile 515 team points at the South Coast Conference Championships at Chaffey College on Saturday and finished in third place. Mt. San Antonio College won the meet with 645 team points, with El Camino College in second place with 594 points. The top 16 times in the state in each event advance to the state championships, which will be held at Long Beach City College this Thursday through Saturday.

As a team, the Falcons finished in second place in one event, three times in third, four times in fourth and four times in fifth place. They scored points in each of the events, which helped them hold off fourth place Chaffey College, who had 507 points.

Freshman Berner Figueroa (Paramount HS) was a third place finisher in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:47.92, while his clocking of 48.68 was good four fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle. Freshman Ryan Leung (Wan Yan College, China) finished 10th in the 100-yard freestyle. Figueroa also placed fourth in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:05.87, with sophomore Alan Nevarez (Downey HS) and freshman Brian Cruz (Long Beach Wilson HS) coming in seventh and 10th place, respectively.

As for freshman Matt Mendoza (La Serna HS) in the distance freestyle races, he placed second in the 1650-yard freestyle (17:24.27), while his time of 4:57.13 was good for third in the 500-yard freestyle. He was joined by freshman Adam Arambula (Kennedy HS) in the 1650, as he came in 11th place in 19:12.34. Mendoza also turned in a third place performance in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:27.75, with sophomore teammate Torrence Lee (Cerritos HS) right behind in fourth place in 4:31.84.

Lee posted a fifth place time of 2:12.08 in the 200-yard backstroke, while Leung placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke with a clocking of 59.34. Freshman Dennis Caggiano (Calvary Chapel HS) swam well in the 100-yard breaststroke and finished fifth in 1:02.69.

In the diving competition from earlier in the week, freshman Edgar Villa (Gahr HS) placed fifth in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competition.

NAME	EVENT	TIME	PLACE
Pat Muniz	50-Yard Freestyle	23.43	7th Place
Berner Figueroa	100-Yard Freestyle	48.68	4th Place
Ryan Leung	100-Yard Freestyle	51.67	10th Place
Berner Figueroa	200-Yard Freestyle	1:47.92	3rd Place
Matt Mendoza	500-Yard Freestyle	4:57.13	3rd Place
Matt Mendoza	1650-Yard Freestyle	17:24.27	2nd Place
Joe Joson	100-Yard Butterfly	58.19	10th Place
Brian Cruz	200-Yard Butterfly	2:16.95	9th Place
Alex Rico	200-Yard Butterfly	2:21.86	10th Place
Ryan Leung	100-Yard Backstroke	59.34	4th Place
Justin Moons	100-Yard Backstroke	1:04.56	10th Place
Torrence Lee	200-Yard Backstroke	2:12.08	5th Place
Justin Moons	200-Yard Backstroke	2:26.19	9th Place
Dennis Caggiano	100-Yard Breaststroke	1:02.69	5th Place
Mark Diaz	100-Yard Breaststroke	1:07.95	10th Place
Dennis Caggiano	200-Yard Breaststroke	2:21.38	7th Place
Torrence lee	200-Yard Breaststroke	2:22.77	8th Place
Berner Figueroa	200-Yard IM	2:05.87	4th Place
Alan Nevarez	200-Yard IM	2:12.17	7th Place
Brian Cruz	200-Yard IM	2:13.53	10th Place
Matt Mendoza	400-Yard IM	4:27.75	3rd Place
Torrence Lee	400-Yard IM	4:31.84	4th Place
William Lansang	1-Meter Diving	146.40 Points	5th Place
Edgar Villa	1-Meter Diving	136.65 Points	6th Place
Edgar Villa	3-Meter Diving	160.05 Points	5th Place
William Lansang	3-Meter Diving	111.55 Points	7th Place