Strong performances in both individual events and distance events led to the Falcons success at the men and women’s first invitational of the 2017 season.

The men and women’s swim teams participated in the Golden West Invitational along with nine other schools.

The men finished the day with a total of 122 team points which was good for fourth place, while the women concluded the meet with 100 points to put them at fifth for the invitational.

The individual events for the men were led by Jesus Rojas and Jason Ly who scored 18 points and 19 points respectively.

Rojas placed fifth in the 100-yard fly stroke for eight points, and third in the 50-yard fly for 10 points.

Ly ended the day with 19 points and also had a third place finish in the 50-yard backstroke for 10 points, sixth in the 100-yard backstroke for six points and eighth in the individual medley for three points.

Four other swimmers scored points for the men putting the total points for individual events at 54.

The men then scored a total of 68 points in the relays to put their total at 122 for the day.

Sophomore Isiah Gaytan said, “It was a good stepping stone for us to [see] where we stack up against those guys.

“None of us had our best day there honestly, and to finish fourth is surprising to me.”

Freshman Jake Evens said, “I think we held our own and later on in the season we should be able to beat them [competitors].”

Head coach Joe Abing commended Evans for his performance during the event as it was his first time swimming this season.

As for the women, the team finished with 100 points, only 30 of which came from individual events.

More than half of those points came from freshman Jackie Oliveros who finished with 16 individual points with fifth, sixth and ninth place finishes.

The team scored the majority of its team points in distance and relay events including the 800-yard freestyle where the swimmers finished fourth, a fifth place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay, a seventh place finish in the 400-yard medley relay and another fifth place finish in the 200-yard medley relay.

Women’s head coach Sergio Macias said, “[We] have swimmers that are willing to take the challenge of swimming the tough events […] with that mindset, preparing to swim in the challenging events will help us when we compete against our conference opponents.”

Macias went on to say that he was pleased with his team’s performance against the competition present at the invitational.

“Best way to measure success in swimming is by using the stopwatch and in doing so, a lot of improvement was shown since our first swim meet in Palomar 2 weeks ago,” he said.

Both teams will travel to Long Beach City College Friday, March 3 to participate in the first conference meet of the year for both squads.

The Falcons will be competing against conference rivals Long Beach City and Chaffey College.