By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

College of the Canyons' men's swim team won a relay event and combined for eight top-five finishes to lead the Cougars to a third-place team result during the Western State Conference (WSC) meet held at the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center on Saturday. COC's women's team finished ninth at the event.

The meet was the second of three regular season conference events and provided participating programs with a chance to get familiar with the venue that will also host the 2019 WSC Championships April 18-19.

The host Cougars started the day with a big win in the men's 400-yard IM relay, with the team of Emilio Santoyo, Rowdy Feather, Miguel Martinez and Ian Werner swimming to a time of 3:35.05. That bested the mark turned in by second-place Santa Monica College by more than six seconds. 

Feather also put together a pair of second place individual finishes. The sophomore was clocked at 4:27.06 in the 400-yard IM, then recorded a time of 2:02.84 in the 200-yard backstroke.

COC sophomore Kenny Payne was runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 5:11.09. Earlier in the day Payne ranked fourth in the 200-yard version of the event at 1:54.47.

Martinez added to the Canyons effort with a third-place time of 2:08.74 in the 200-yard butterfly and ended the meet by taking fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:24.57. His 11 event points ranked third on the team after Payne (12) and Feather (14).

Santoyo swam to fourth-place times in both the 400-yard IM (4:45.11) and 200-yard backstroke (2:09.27) to end his day with 10 points.

Canyons (72) trailed second place Ventura College (97) and meet winner Santa Monica (119).

COC's women's team entered just two swimmers in the meet. Freshman Kaley Gregory swam to sixth-place results in the 50-yard freestyle (28.13) and 100-yard freestyle (1:01.70).

Santa Barbara City College (124), Cuesta College (72) and L.A. Valley College (66) finished in the top three spots.

The Cougars return to action at WSC Meet No. 3 hosted by L.A. Valley College on Friday, March 29.

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.