Although the Cerritos College men's track and field team only competed in three events at the Ben Brown Invitational at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, they made the most of their showing. The Falcons, who had the majority of their team in a four-way meet at the same time, watched several outstanding times get posted in two distance races.

Sophomore Adam Vega (La Serna HS/Whittier College) ran the 1500 meters and saw his time not only come in 11th place on the day, but it was also the fifth fastest time in school history. Vega registered a time of 3:59.21 and was one of only two community college runners in his heat. 

The same held true for sophomore Munir Kahssay (Western HS) in his heat of the 5000 meters, which was his first race of the season. He finished in 15th place with a time of 14:44.51, which was just six seconds off his personal best time. The Falcons had nine other runners in different flights of the 5000 meters, with freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS) not only coming in second place in his heat, but his time of 14:49.48 puts him in third on the school's top five list. Also running the same race was freshman Omar Torres (Warren HS), whose time of 14:56.08 was fifth in the race and also puts his time in fourth place on the top five list.

Freshman Paul Mora ran in another heat of the 5000 meters and came in eight place with a time of 15:20.56, while freshman Elvis Salinas (Norwalk HS) was 14th in that heat. Cerritos also had two entries in the 800 meters, with sophomore DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS) finishing in 23rd place overall with a time of 1:56.29, with freshman Jesus Morales (Huntington Park HS) posting a time of 1:57.91 to come in 26th place overall.

Photo by Daryl Peterson