Cuesta Men's Aquatics has been around since the spring of 1979 and in that time the Cougars have collected 30 water polo titles and 17 swimming crowns, while combining to produce 194 All Americans.  The men's team is coming off a third-place finish at the 2022 CCCAA State Championships and this weekend's trip to Walnut will be the Cougars' first big test of the season.  The Mt San Antonio Invitational is a grueling three-day affair that features all the best teams in Southern California and most of the best teams in the State.  Cuesta won the 20-team event in 2022 and, despite losing half of their individual All Americans from last year's pod, the Cougars remain one of the favorites.  Returning All Americans Andrew Lopez and Stash Perry shared co-Western State Conference Swimmer of the Year Honors in 2022 and are favorites in the breaststroke and long-distance events this weekend.  Perry's brother, Ethan Perry, leads a trio of "Ethans" that dominated the leader list at last week's WSC Mini Meet and should produce big numbers in Mt SAC.  Perry will handle the backstrokes and medley, while Ethan Merritt and Ethan Blum (pict) handle the rest of the field.  Merritt won the 100-breastroke last week and placed in the 100-butterfly, while Blum holds the Cuesta Record for the 50-butterfly.  Freshmen Zachary O'Connor and Gage Price kept up with Cuesta's veterans last weekend should complement the "Ethans" with big point totals in multiple events.  

Last week the Cougars easily won WSC Mini Meet #1 at Bakersfield by claiming 193 of the 420 available points in the five-team meet.  All American Stash Perry led all swimmers with 27 individual points, while seven of his teammates also placed in the meet's Top 10.