Paced by three runners in the top 13, the Cerritos College women's cross country took third place at the Golden West Invitational, which was held at Central Park in Huntington Beach on Friday. The Falcons, who finished with 75 team points, will run at the Coach Downey Cross Country Classic at Morely Field in San Diego next Friday.

 

Leading the Falcons over the 5K course was sophomore Megan Feitz (Fountain Valley HS), who recorded a third place time of 19:51.8, which was 14 seconds off the pace of the overall winner. It was the third consecutive meet that Feitz crossed the finish line in less than 20 minutes, Teammates Samantha Martinez (Fountain Valley HS) and Evelyn Mejia (Norwalk HS) were the next two runners to complete the course. Martinez checked in with an 11th overall place with a time of 20:50.1, while Mejia recorded a time of 21:21.1, which put her in 13th place out of 87 total runners.

 

Also playing a role in the team scoring was Delilah Chavez (Lakewood HS), whose time of 22:35.0 placed her 29th overall, with Diana Perez (Norwalk HS) not far behind in a time of 22:54.3, which put her in 32nd place. Both runners were able to hold off competition at the conclusion of the race.

 

Also competing on the day for the Falcons were Kimberly Ibarra (Warren HS; 23:03.8; 37th place), Leslie Juarez (Warren HS; 23:06.0; 39th place), Vanessa Rojas (Downey HS; 23:07.3; 41st place), Lila Palmer (Long Beach Poly HS; 23:22.9; 43rd place), Ariel Alvarez (Firebaugh HS; 23:29.7; 45th place), Jasmine Osorio (Segerstrom HS; 23:54.3; 51st place), Natalia Orta (Norwalk HS; 25:46.8; 62nd place), Claudia Rios (Paramount HS; 26:21.0; 65th place) and Viviana Rodriguez (Santa Fe HS; 28:02.8; 76th place).