Competing at the American River Invitational in Sacramento on Saturday, the Cerritos College men's track and field team received strong performances from their distance runners and field events. The Falcons, who will be hosting the Southern California Decathlon Championships on Tuesday and Wednesday, took the top four places in the 5000 meters and also won one field event over the weekend.

In the 5000 meters, sophomore Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS) easily won the race with a time of 15:06.79, which was 15 seconds ahead of freshman teammate Paul Mora, who finished in second place in 15:31.13. He barely edged sophomore Mustafa Kahssay (Western HS), whose time of 15:31.23 put him in third place, with freshman Oscar Contreras (Huntington Park HS) on fourth place at 15:33.90. Sophomore Munir Kahssay (Western HS), who was scratched from the 5000 meters, finished in third place in the 1500 meters ith a time of 3:59.77, with sophomore teammate Thomas Poston (El Dorado HS) posting a seventh place time of 4:02.25.

It was sophomore Joe Magana (Cantwell HS) who led the Falcons in the 3000-meter steeplechase, as he came in third place in 9:52.61, while freshman Jonathan Villa (Long Beach Poly HS) was the fourth place finisher in 10:02 .35.

Freshman Adam Aguirre (Cantwell HS) went on to win the high jump when he cleared 2.08 meters, which ties the school record books for the third highest height. Freshman Lenin Dolmos (Downey HS) tied for fourth place with a clearance of 1.88 meters. Aguirre also competed in the javelin and came in third place with a throw that travelled 176' 7". Sophomore Dionbrea Norris (Long Beach Millikan HS) leaped 13.67 meters to come in fifth place in the triple jump, while he posted a distance of 6.48 meters to place 10th in the long jump. Freshman thrower Joe Leonard (El Rancho HS) finished 10th in the hammer (44.08 meters), 11th in the shot put (12.76 meters) and 15th in the discus at 38.24 meters.

Photo by Daryl Peterson