The Cerritos College men's cross country team was primed and poised to capture their first-ever Southern California Championship on Saturday at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa. They sent out their best overall team in school history, and not for a trip-up, the Falcons would have won the title. The Falcons wound up coming in second place with 97 team points, as they were edged by San Bernardino Valley for the team title. On November 17, the team will get a chance at winning their first state championship when they compete at Woodward Park in Fresno.

The team's top runners, sophomores Munir Kahssay (Western HS) and Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS) finished in second and fourth place overall in the four-mile run. Kahssay was edged at the end by Omar Cortes of Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, whose time of 19:48.44 was seven seconds ahead of Kahssay's 19:55.66. At the SCC Championships, Kahssay came in first place, while Cortes took fourth place. Taylor's time of 10:16.44 beat a small pack of runners to help him secure fourth place. One of the next to cross the finish line for the Falcons was expected to be freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS), who came in seventh place at the South Coast Conference Championships the week before. But along the course, Bazinet was tripped and it took him a while to get his rhythm back, which accounted for his 38th place finish in 21:10.52 and he was the fifth Cerritos runner to finish.

Between freshman DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS), who came in 20th place out of the 195 runners, and Bazinet's 38th place, SBVC had four of their runners finish the course, which propelled them to the title. Freshman Oscar Contreras (Huntington Park HS) was the fourth Cerritos runner to finish, as he took 33rd place in 21:01.31, while freshman Elvis Salinas (Norwalk HS) also ran the race and posted a time of 21:48.66 for 69th place.