Running in the San Bernardino Valley Invitational on Friday, the Cerritos College women's cross country team earned fourth place out of nine teams. The Falcons had nine of their runners finish the 5K course 1:14 apart and concluded with 94 team points. They trailed Glendale College, who won the meet with 23 team points, while College of the Canyons was second with 70 points and South Coast Conference opponent Los Angeles Harbor College was third with 84 team 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.
Leading the way for Cerritos on the 5K course was sophomore Adriana Velasco (Downey HS), who was the 14th runner out of 83 to cross the finish line in a time of 19:36.09. On her heels was freshman teammate Rebecca Harris (Buena Park HS), who took 16th place when she was clocked in 19:38.77. Less than a minute later, freshman Raquel Hernandez (Downey HS) posted a time of 20:25.09 for a 26th place finish, while freshman Sabrina Padilla (Montebello HS) was 29th in a time of 20:43.64, with sophomore Brianna Gill (La Serna HS) rounding out the top five scoring runners with a 30th place time of 20:48.07.
The Falcons had six other runners on the day and they included Gabrielle Mendoza (Schurr HS; 31st place; 20:53.04), Katherine Batres (Schurr HS; 34th place; 21:02.67), Bailee Wilkerson (Mayfair HS; 35th place; 21:14.76), Kathia Munoz (Paramount HS; 37th place; 21:20.21), Heidi Rouse (Mayfair HS; 57th place; 23:54.35) and Juanita Webster (Redlands HS; 59th place; 24:15.75).