Competing in the 25-team Golden West Invitational on Friday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team held off their competition to come in first place. Cerritos won the championship by finishing with 83 team points and held off their closest competition, Riverside City College and San Bernardino Valley College, who compiled 96 and 97 points, respectively. After a week off, the team will take part in the Southern California Regional Invitational, which will take place on October 4 at Chaffey College.
The Falcons had three of the top 13 finishers over the four-mile course, while it was their blocking that allowed them to come away with the championship. The top two Cerritos runners finished together, with Tyler Villanueva (Warren HS) placing ninth overall in a time of 21:02.83, while the time of 21:07.00 by Joshua Melendez (St. Paul HS) put him in 10th place out of 277 total runners. It was a short dropoff before Robert Guerrero (Long Beach Poly HS) posted the 13th fastest time with a clocking of 21:19.35.
Just four seconds separated the fourth and fifth Falcons runners, which comprised the team score. Louis Santibanez (Warren HS) was timed in 21:40.72, good for 24th overall, while Jacob Cosio (California HS) crossed the finish line in 21:44.81, which put him in 27th place overall.
The team had 13 other runners competing on the day and included Axel Rebolledo-Ynostros (California HS; 21:546.80; 32nd place), Gerardo Rubio (Warren HS; 22:05.99; 40th place), Matthew Alvarez (Warren HS; 22:37.33; 67th place), Mikel Bautista (Warren HS; 22:49.16; 75th place), Johan Perez (Downey HS; 23:34.19; 110th place), Preston Yi (Cerritos HS; 23:39.64; 112th place), Shanal De Silva (Warren HS; 24:03.76; 128th place), Daniel Gonzalez (Schurr HS; 24:10.03; 133rd place), Joshua Chazari (Middle College HS; 25:10.39; 159th place), Tyler Alvarez (Schurr HS; 25:11.05; 160th place), Guillermo Ramos (Schurr HS; 26:19.19; 190th place), Daniel Lopez (Schurr HS; 27:11.85; 213th place), and Yasiru De Silva (Warren HS; 28:14.33; 229th place).
Photos courtesy of Brad Hoiseth
