With the Cerritos College men's and women's cross country teams preparing to compete in the 3C2A State Championships in a little over a week, four members earned their name to the state's top academic award list. From the women's team, Evelyn Mejia (Norwalk HS), Diana Raya Perez (Norwalk HS) and Viviana Rodriguez (Santa Fe HS), along with Joshua Melendez (St. Paul HS) from the men's team were named to the 3C2AA Academic All-State Team.

Criteria for selection includes the following:
A. All nominees must have completed at least one (1) season of competition with a minimum of twenty-four (24) units accumulated from the beginning of their first season of competition.
B. All nominees must have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in those accumulated units. Transcripts must be submitted with the nomination.

The duo of Mejia (4.0 GPA) and Raya Perez (3.69 ERA) represented the Falcons at the Southern California Championships last weekend and will run at Woodward Park in Fresno at the state championships. Raya Perez led the team with a 28th place finish at the SoCal Championships, while Mejia finished in 57th place out of 143 total runners. The two were also instrumental in helping Cerritos come in second place at the South Coast Conference Championships.

For Melendez, who has a 3.76 GPA, he's led the team for the majority of the season. At the SoCal Championships, he earned 2nd Team All-Region by finishing in 12 place overall, while he was a 1st Team All-SCC pick when he finished second overall, as they team also came in second place. He will be leading the team at the State Championships in Fresno.