Running in the SoCal Preview Meet on Friday at Irvine Regional Park, the Cerritos College men's cross country team took 12th place. With 32 schools competing in the 4-mile race, the Falcons finished with 368 team points and just missed out on 11th place, as Ventura compiled 366 team points. The team will now run in the Golden West Invitational, which will take place at Central Park in Huntington Beach on Friday.
Freshman Cristhian Macias (Gardena HS) was the first Cerritos runner to cross the finish line and did so with a small pack of runners. His time of 22:16.8 was less than a second out of 67th place overall and he settled for 68th place out of the 317 runners. Freshman teammate Abraxaz Sanchez (Schurr HS) posted a time of 22:23.6, which earned him 74th place overall, with the next two runners coming in :13 seconds and :18 seconds later, respectively.
Just a couple of spots higher in the standings would have moved the team into 11th place. Sophomore Carlos Mendoza (Highland HS) earned 89th place overall in 22:35.9, while sophomore Faustino Diaz (Warren HS) checked in with a time of 22:41.8, which earned him 96th place overall. The fifth runner to help compile the team points was freshman Jhamani Long (Gahr HS), who earned 114th place overall in a time of 22:55.0.
As a team, the Falcons had 14 runners, which also included Erick Ayala (Downey HS; 134th place; 23:15.2), Ricardo Cano Sanchez (Schurr HS; 138th place; 23:20.8), Mario Pulido (Whittier HS, 179th place; 23:56.1), Jerson Ramirez (Jefferson HS; 182nd place; 23:57.5), Christian Lopez (California HS; 222nd place; 24:38.3), Steven Anker (Gahr HS; 224th place; 24:41.5), James Penn (Mayfair HS; 229th place; 24:47.3), Leonel Ponton (Bellflower HS; 267th place; 26:04.4) and Flavio Pina (Schurr HS; 272nd place; 26:16.6).