W. Cross Country: Falcons take fifth place in first meet

Cerritos comes in fifth place in first meet
Cerritos comes in fifth place in first meet

On Saturday, the Cerritos College women's cross country team finished in fifth place in their first meet of the season. Running in the Redlands Invitational, the Falcons compiled 122 team points and were second out of the three community colleges that competed. They trailed only South Coast Conference opponent Los Angeles Harbor College, who took second place with 66 team points. Next Saturday, Cerritos will travel to central California to run the Fresno Invitational, which will be held at Woodward Park and also serve as the location for the CCCAA State Championship.

There were 68 entries in the invitational, with the top Falcons runner coming in 15th place over the 4500-meter course. Sophomore Rebecca Harris (Buena Park HS) led the team with a time of 18:15.95, and was the fifth fastest among the community college runners on the day. Next up were the tandem of freshman Alejandra De La O (Norwalk HS) and sophomore Tyler Simpson (Dominguez HS), who finished less than one second apart. De La O took 23rd place overall in 18:56.77, while Simpson's time of 18:57.15 put her in 24th place. The team's fourth runner to complete the course was sophomore Giselle Burgos (El Rancho HS), who was clocked in 19:24.29, good for 32nd place, with freshman Raquel Calderon rounding out the team's scoring with her 42nd place time of 20:12.69.

Also competing for Cerritos on the day were Gaby Mendoza (Schurr HS; 20:19.70; 43rd place); Jessica Ayala (Cabrillo HS; 20:23.93; 45th place); Monica Bautista (El Rancho HS; 21:24.12; 53rd place); Debora Lopez-Guzman (Gahr HS; 21:44.46; 58th place); Jaime Monaco (Long Beach Poly HS; 22:12.31; 60th place); Fatima Luna (Lynwood HS; 22:17.34; 61st place) and Mikaiella Vargas (El Rancho HS; 23:52.40; 64th place).