Cougar Men’s Swim Finishes Fourth at Cuesta Invite

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — College of the Canyons freshman Emilio Santoyo put together a break out performance and sophomore Rowdy Feather won a pair of events to help the Cougars' men's swim team place fourth at the 41th Annual Cuesta College Invitational. The COC women's team finished 10th.

The two-day event, which had to be held at Bakersfield College due to a last minute facilities issue at the Cuesta campus, was held March 8-9 and featured swimmers representing 11 community college programs. Cougar swimmers also competed in the precursor Cuesta Colle Sprint Meet on Thursday.

Feather's first victory came in the 200-yard backstroke (2:00.45) during Friday's events. That same day he also took second in the 200-yard IM (2:03.45). On Saturday, the sophomore from Canyon High School won the 100-yard IM (56.80). His 64 event points were second on the team.

Santoyo put together five top-five finishes for Canyons. The freshman's top marks came during third place finishes in the 200-yard backstroke (2:08.64), 50-yard butterfly (25:03) and 100-yard backstroke (57.06). He also turned in a pair of fifth-place times in the 200-yard IM (2:11.61) and 100-yard butterfly (56.71). Santoyo led the Cougars with 76 event points, which also ranked him fifth in the individual standings among 103 entered athletes on the men's side.

Sophomore Kenny Payne was third in the 200-yard butterfly (2:11.61) while Miguel Martinez took fifth in both the 50-yard breaststroke (30.48) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:27.19).

Santa Monica (737) won the meet followed by venue-host Bakersfield (632), event-host Cuesta (588) and Canyons (388).

COC freshman Kaley Gregory was the top finisher for the women's team with a fourth-place mark in the 100-yard IM (1:11.01). She was also 10th in the 50-yard breaststroke (37.73). 

Freshman Jackie Esse had three top-10 times, taking sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:50.05), ninth in the 50-yard breaststroke (37:07) and 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:19.99). 

Cuesta (682) won the women's side with Bakersfield (600), Clovis (550) and Cypress College (390) rounding out the top-four. 

Full team and individual results from the meet are included here.

Canyons will now return to conference competition on Saturday, March 16, at the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center. Events are scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. with 10 schools from Western State Conference (WSC) expected to compete.

The Aquatic Center will also serve as the site of the 2019 WSC Championships being held April 18-20.

Saturday's meet is the second of four WSC meets which count towards the conference standings. WSC Meet No. 3 will be held March 29 at L.A. Valley with the conference championships then concluding the regular season. 

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.