Freshman Eugene Runas along with the rest of men’s swimming team look to build on chemistry when it hosts its first swim meet of the season on Friday.

Runas is coming off a record-breaking performance where he set the team record for the 100-yard breaststroke at the Golden West Invitational with a time of 59.97.

The record was previously set last year by Grossmont College’s Julian Myers with a time of 1:00:62.

The men’s swimming and diving team will host El Camino College and Long Beach City College at 12:30 p.m. on Friday.

“I keep a cool mind, loose body, and imagine myself swimming the event beforehand in my mind, ” said Runas.

“We are always ready to swim any event no matter what our coach puts us in. But I don’t see much of a weakness within the team.”

While Runas doesn’t see a weakness in his team, Head Coach Joe Abing has identified it.

“Our biggest weakness is not having much depth in the distance events,” Abing said.

“Overall, I am pleased with our progress. We have been training hard and have seen some positive results.”

Sophomore Derek Klotzer admits that there’s a couple things he likes out of the season so far.

“We are very hard working and surprisingly fast,” he said.

Abing notes that the competition seems to have increased this season.

“I am surprised to see how talented all of the teams are this year in our conference. It will be a very competitive year. Our team is always ready for competition. We train hard, so it is nice to see your hard work pay off with some results.”