M. Cross Country: Third place finish for Cerritos in San Bernardino

The men's cross country team took third place at San Bernardino Invite
The men's cross country team took third place at San Bernardino Invite

On Friday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team had their first five runners finish in the top 27 to come in third place at the San Bernardino Invitational. Running at the San Bernardino Soccer Complex, the Falcons finished with 92 team points and held off fourth place West Los Angeles College by 10 points. The host Wolverines won the meet with 30 team points, with Glendale College in second place with 36 points. The team will travel to the East Coast next week to run in the St. Joseph's Invitational at Sunken Meadow Park in Suffolk County, New York.

With their top five runners completing the four-mile course 1:13 apart, Cerritos was led by sophomore Carlos Mendoza (Highland HS), who placed ninth out of 119 overall runners with a clocking of 20:59.52. Not far behind was freshman Cristhian Macias (Gardena HS), whose time of 21:06.67 earned him an 11th place finish, with freshman Abraxaz Sanchez (Schurr HS) the 21st runner to complete the course in 21:31.11. Earning 25th place was sophomore Anthony Lopez (Downey HS) with his time of 21:53.28, with freshman Jhamani Long (Gahr HS) collecting 27 team points with his 22:12.75 finish.

Nine other runners competed for the Falcons on the day and included Ricardo Cano Sanchez (Schurr HS; 37th place; 22:29.12), Erick Ayala (Downey HS; 44th place; 22:41.67), Mario Pulido (Whittier HS; 49th place; 22:51.93), Christian Lopez (California HS; 65th place; 23:26.95), Leonel Ponton (Bellflower HS; 71st place; 23:39.42), Faustino Diaz (Warren HS; 80th place; 24:00.60), James Penn (Mayfair HS; 86th place; 24:27.72), Flavio Pina (Schurr HS; 92nd place; 24:58.28) and Steven Anker (Gahr HS; 98th place; 25:24.22).