Last season, the Cerritos College women's cross country team earned a strong sixth place at the CCCAA State Championships. But this year, they were able to improve on that result, as they came in fifth place on Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno when they posted 232 team points. Orange Coast College won the championship with 73 points, and only Mt. San Antonio College from the South Coast Conference finished ahead of the Falcons with their third place result. Two weeks ago, the team came in 14th place at the Southern California Regional Championships, and tied for third in the SCC Championships, so this finish is a pleasant result for the team.

Leading the way in the 5000-meter race was sophomore Patricia Hurley (Mark Keppel HS), who finished in 27th place in a time of 19:19.39. There was a tight pack of runners near the end and Hurley pulled ahead of the majority of them to earn her strong finishing time and place. Cerritos did a great job of blocking their runners, with the next four runners all finishing within :18 seconds of each other.

Sophomore Kathia Avila (Cerritos HS) crossed the finish line in 19:33.59 to charge the team 42 team points, with freshman Stephanie Ruiz (Western HS) on her heels in 45th place with a clocking of 19:35.16. With over 200 runners in the event, there were several areas that runners all finished within seconds of each other, and both of them were able to stay within a pack to help the Falcons.

The final two scoring runners for Cerritos were seven seconds apart, as sophomore Isabel Medina (Paramount HS) ran the course in 19:44.54 to come in 55th place, while freshman Ariel Melendez (St. Paul HS) placed 63rd with a time of 19:51.11. The final two runners, who didn't factor into the team scoring were freshman Janet Salazar (Paramount HS) in 111th place at 20:38.35, while sophomore Kaela Crone (Kennedy HS) placed 118th place with a time of 20:50.38.