Although, the Cerritos College men’s swim team is suffering from injuries, they still managed to crush Chaffey College by 34 points.
The men will compete on Friday, April 7 at the Pasadena Invitational as its record is now 5-2.
Park stated, “As a whole for us we work together more […] and I think we did a good job in filling up the four and five spots of the regular events.”
On Friday, April 1 the men’s swim team won a total of nine events.
According to Nick Apodaca, the team’s injuries ranged from bruised ribs to a groin injury.
Fortunately, the injuries did not take down the entire team.
Mitchell Bowman, Kevin De Leon, Jesus Rojas, and Davey Brown earned first place in the 200-yard medley relay at 1:46.67.
The men also earned first place in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Preston Medina, Apodaca, Jeffrey Park, and Daniel Loeza finished the race in 3:36.06.
Some players earned first place finishes in individual meets.
Mitchell Bowman, who competed in the 100-yard backstroke as well as the 200-yard freestyle, came in first for both races and finished at 1:00.25, then 2.14:27 in his second race.
Jesus Rojas, who has been coming in first often throughout the semester, earned first place in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:49.70.
While, Apodaca finished in first place in the 50-yard freestyle and Brown finished first in the 100-yard freestyle. Apodaca earned a time of 23.00, and Brown earned a time of 51.51.
“We got a lot of first place and second places, which is good for us too,” Park exclaimed.
Diver Randy Encarnacion contributed to the team’s total points for the day in the diving competition, he came in second place with 88.60 points.
According to head Coach Joe Abing it’s a huge advantage to have divers in a dual swim meet, but unfortunately the diving points didn’t make a big difference.
Abing expressed, “[Rojas] had some really nice swims today. He had his best time in the 200 free. Apodaca, who has been injured, had some really good swims.
“He’s still swimming with some sore ribs. He did really well. Daniel Loeza has a hurt groin, and so he normally swims breaststroke, he swam off events today the 1000 to 500. Those were probably our best swims.”
The question remains with the team’s momentum at a high from their winning streak, will they be able to continue the streak in the coming events?
