While the majority of the Cerritos College men's track and field team took part in the Antelope Valley Invitational, five members headed north to participate in the Stanford Invitational. Of the five that were in Palo Alto, two of them recorded top five times in school history, while the squad in Lancerster came in second place out of 11 teams with 83 team points. The Falcons will now compete in the Orange Coast Invitational on Friday and then travel to Sacramento for the American River Invitational on Saturday.

Sophomore distance runner Munir Kahssay (Western HS) improved on his personal best time in the 5000 meters at Stanford by placing fifth with a time of 14:21.44. He was beat by runners from the University of Arizona, University of San Francisco and Colorado State University. Kahssay was edged for fourth place by a scant .05 second by Edwin Serem of Iowa State University. Also running in that race was freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS), who turned in a time of 15:08.60.

In the long jump, sophomore Dionbrea Norris (Long Beach Millikan HS) didn't turn in a top five distance, but his final jump of the day went 6.92 meters, which put him in second place overall. He trailed only Isaiah Brown of Cal State Monterey. Sophomore Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS) was well off the pace in his heat of the 3000-meter steeplechase, but his time of 9:38.05 was the fourth best in school history.

Also competing at the Stanford Invitational was sophomore Adam Vega (La Serna HS/Whittier College), who posted a time of 4:06.78 in the 1500 meters, while Norris also was entered in the triple jump but did not record a distance.

At the Antelope Valley Invitational, the Falcons received a pair of first place finishes and a second place to help lead them to a second place as a team. In the 800 meters, freshman Thomas Poston (El Dorado HS) beat out a field of 57 runners to come in first place with a time of 1:56.67. As a team, Cerritos had 16 entries in the event. The other first place came from freshman Adam Aguirre (Cantwell HS) in the high jump, as he cleared a height of 2.03 meters. Aguirre also earned the team points in the javelin with a throw of 48.43 meters, which put him in third place and edged freshman teammate Jake Ostgaard (La Mirada HS), who placed fourth with a distance of 46.43 meters.

In the running events, freshman Craig Jones (Long Beach Jordan HS) took sixth in the 100 meters with a time of 11.29, while freshman Miguel Figueroa (Washington Prep HS) ran the 200 meters in 22,93, which put him in 10th place. Freshman Jesus Morales (Huntington Park HS) and Figueroa both earned the team points in the 400 meters, with Morales taking fourth in 50.45 and Figueroa fifth in 50.49. Freshman Oscar Contreras (Huntington Park HS) picked up eight team points with his second place time of 16:00.86 in the 5000 meters, with the quartet of Figueroa, Vega, freshman Gabor Fusick (Western HS) and freshman George Robinson (Washington Prep HS) running a fourth place time of 3:25.35 in the 4x400-meter relay.

Other point-producing field event results were turned in by freshman pole vaulter Stephen Moore (Paramount HS), who came in fourth place at 3.80 meters, while freshman thrower Joe Leonard (El Rancho HS) took third in the shot put (11.95 meters), fourth in the hammer (39.22 meters) and seventh in the discus (34.78 meters).

Photo by Daryl Peterson