At the CCCAA State Championships on Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno, the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in 15th place. The Falcons, who compiled 382 team points, edged both Bakersfield College (398 points) and Cuyamaca College (404 team points) to secure their team finish.
Running the four-mile course, sophomore Pablo Calderon (Downey HS) rose above the rest of the Falcon runners to finish in 25th place overall out of 172 runners with a time of 21:23. He was part of seven runners that finish within three seconds of each other and ran a stronger fourth mile than his previous two miles, which allowed him to move up in the standings. Next to complete the course was sophomore Jaime Quinones (Downey HS), whose time of 22:08.6 earned him a 76th place finish on the day. Also part of a group of runners, Quinones used a strong fourth mile to propel himself past a number of runners and pulled ahead of four others in the latter part of the race.
Freshman Antonio Calderon (La Mirada HS) was the third Cerritos runner to complete the course, as he finished with a time of 22:17.0, which put him in 96th place overall. He slipped back in the pack with his third mile time, but shaved 13 seconds off his fourth mile to sprint past a pack of runners and finish with his placing. It was 12 seconds before the next Falcon runner crossed the finish line, as Jordy Mazariegos (La Mirada HS) took 112th place with a clocking of 22:29.8. Running steady for the first two miles, Mazariegos lost some momentum in his third mile, but found his kick again in the fourth mile and took 15 seconds off his time in the final mile.
Rounding out the team scoring was freshman Daniel Alonzo (Artesia HS) with a 128th place time of 22:50.8, which was the third fastest time of a group of runners to completed the course all finishing three seconds of each other. In fact, his fastest mile of the day was the final mile of the race, which moved him up the rankings in the latter part of the race. Also running for the Falcons was freshman Alberto Serrano (St. John Bosco HS), who turned in a time of 23:07.5, which netted him 143rd place on the day, while Joe Munoz (Long Beach Jordan HS) placed 168th place with his time of 25:04.3.