Keeping pace for much of the day, the men’s swimming team faltered in the final event and dropped Friday’s meet to visiting Pasadena, 70-57.

EC will host a three-way meet vs. Long Beach and L.A. Trade Tech tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.

“There were several races that were really close that they just touched us out,” swimming and diving coach, Corey Stanbury said. “We put up a good fight and the meet was in doubt until late.”

In one of the breaststroke events, the difference between first and second place times was less than 4/10ths of a second.

The difference between third and second place was less than 4/10ths of a second as well.

EC suffered a setback when the officials did not call a penalty committed by Pasadena during the first relay of the event.

“In the first relay, a Pasadena swimmer had a false start,” Stanbury said.

“The ref seemed like he didn’t know what he was doing,” freestyle swimmer Scott Smith said.

With a score as close as the one at this meet, blunders by the officials can be costly.

However, Stanbury believes it is impossible to prepare for instances like those.

“We also had a relay that looked pretty clear to me that one of the guys from Pasadena false started, but the official did not call it,” Stanbury said.

“It’s kind of a bummer that the official didn’t do his job, but you can’t count on that kind of stuff,” Stanbury said.

The best performances of the meet were by Denis Katarygin, 100-yard breaststroke, 1:04.03; Tim Warnock, 100-yard freestyle, 49.52, and Mike Gavola, 200-yard freestyle, 1:56.85.

Gavola’s time beat what used to be his best personal record by four seconds.

This was the swim team’s first home meet and many of the swimmers enjoyed the advantage of swimming being able to compete in their own pool.

“Doing the backstroke, I really liked it because when we are at other pools competing they don’t have a roof, so there is no reference,” said Shon Page. “It felt good to actually be able to go straight.”

Diver David Austin is coming back to the team after an injury stopped him from competing.

He has rested for more than a month and is expected to dive at the upcoming meet tomorrow.

“He’s got a lot of talent, so I think he is definitely a threat to make the state championships this year,” Stanbury said.

Even after the men’s team’s loss, Stanbury remains optimistic about what the team can accomplish during the remainder of the season .

“I was very pleased that a lot of people swam very well,” said Stanbury. “I’m more looking at where we are with training and how that is showing up in the racing.”

“I think we are in a good place,” Stanbury said.