The Cerritos College men’s swim team will compete against Mt. San Antonio College and Long Beach City College on Saturday at the South Coast Conference opener at the Falcon Aquatic Center.

“It’s going to be tough, ” Head Coach Joe Abing said about the conference.

“Besides ourselves, we have the two top teams in our conference.

“Hopefully, we can improve our times from the Golden West meet.”

With a total of 603 points, the Cerritos men’s team placed sixth out of seven other teams who were competing at the Golden West Invitational last Friday.

The Falcons had five swimmers place in the top 10 with three swimmers placing eighth in their individual categories,

Cerritos swimmer and assistant swimming coach at Paramount High School, Joel Bautista, said that he felt his team did well and were prepared for the invitational.

“There was some really good competition with other schools,” he said.

“The 100 fly was really great, we started and ended strong. We were cheering for each other the whole way,” Bautista added.

Bautista took 14th place at the Golden West Invitaional.

He said that the race for the 100 fly on Friday was a challenge.

This swimming event is concentrated on a swimmer swimming butterfly strokes underwater eight times back and fourth from the racing line.

With his chin up high, Cerritos swimmer and kinesiology major Raul Rivas explained that the team, “[has to] keep working on speed. We’re trying to stay on top.

“We have to work on turns and exchanges when doing relays and make sure we’re keeping pretty tight on flip turns.”

Abing also mentioned that, “We have a lot of really good swimmers. Most guys improved their times from previous meets.”

He participated in seven swimming events, including the 50 fly and 100 fly.

The Cerritos College men’s swim team is preparing to face the Mounties and Vikings at home on Friday.

Due to Monday’s rain, the Falcons have one less day to prepare for the meet.