Competing in the Golden West Invitational at Central Park in Huntington Beach on Friday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in sixth place. The Falcons finished with 150 team points and trailed only one South Coast Conference team, fifth place Mt. San Antonio College, out of 19 schools that were entered.
One of the reasons Cerritos finished in sixth place over the 4-mile course was their ability to bunch their runners. The top four Falcon finishers cross the finish line within five seconds and were just six places apart out of the 198 competitors. Sophomore Carlos Mendoza (Highland HS) led the team with a 21st place finish in a time of 22:00.2, while freshman Cristhian Macias (Gardena HS) was right next to him with his 22nd place time of 22:01.6.
Close on their heels was freshman Abraxaz Sanchez (Schurr HS) with his 22:02.5, which put him in 24th place overall, while sophomore Faustino Diaz (Warren HS) posted a time of 22:05.0, which put him in 27th place. Closing out the team scoring was freshman Jhamani Long (Gahr HS), who came in 63rd place overall with a clocking of 22:48.0.
As a team, the Falcons had 11 runners, which included Ricardo Cano Sanchez (Schurr HS; 23:24.1; 86th place), Jerson Ramirez (Jefferson HS; 23:45.0; 105th place), Mario Pulido (Whittier HS; 23:46.2; 107th place), Christian Lopez (California HS; 23:59.9; 114th place), James Penn (Mayfair HS; 24:14.1; 125th place) and Steven Anker (Gahr HS; 24:46.6; 146th place).