M. Cross Country: Team qualifies for CCCAA State Championships

Carlos Mendoza helped lead the Falcons to a 14th place finsih
Carlos Mendoza helped lead the Falcons to a 14th place finsih

Complete Results

On Friday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team came in 14th place at the Southern California Championships, which was held at Irvine Regional Park. The Falcons, who had 370 points, were the final team to qualify for the CCCAA State Championships, which will be held at Woodward Park in Fresno on November 19. The team held off West Los Angeles College, who came in 15th place with 374 team points. San Bernardino Valley College won the championship with 62 team points.

The top Cerritos runner on the 4-mile course was sophomore Carlos Mendoza (Highland HS), who posted a time of 21:33.7 to come in 41st place out of 197 runners on the day. He was followed by freshman Abraxaz Sanchez (Schurr HS), whose time of 21:52.4 put him in 59th place and barely held of a pair of runners to help the team with their finish in the standings.

Finishing nine seconds apart were freshman Cristhian Macias (Gardena HS), who came in 78th place overall in 22:18.0, while sophomore Anthony Lopez (Downey HS) was clocked in 22:27.2 to come in 88th place. Both Macias and Lopez finished less than a second ahead of two other runners, with packs of runners crossing the finish line throughout the race.

The final runner who contributed to the team scoring was sophomore Jhamani Long (Gahr HS), who took 105th place with a time of 22:42.1. Also competing for the Falcons were freshman Mario Pulido (Whittier HS), who came in 153rd place in 23:51.7 and sophomore Faustino Diaz (Warren HS) with a 168th place time of 24:26.9.