Led by one first place and three second place finishes, the Cerritos College men's track and field team finished fourth at the Southern California Championships on Saturday at Antelope Valley College. The Falcons finished with 59 team points and will be sending athletes in eight events to the CCCAA State Championships, which will be held at College of San Mateo next weekend.

Freshman high jumper Adam Aguirre (Cantwell HS) won the Southern California championship with a height of 2.07 meters, while freshman Lenin Dolmos (Downey HS) also advanced by placing in a tie for seventh place with a clearance of 1.95 meters. In other field events, freshman Ricky Carrigan, Jr. (Cabrillo HS) advanced to next week's championships by coming in fifth place in the triple jump at 14.37 meters. It was only his third event of the season and he has improved his distance in each event. Freshman Joe Leonard (El Rancho HS) advanced to the SoCal finals, but placed 12th in the hammer at 40.97 meters.

Cerritos will be well-represented in the distance races, and are led by sophomore Munir Kahssay (Western HS), who took second place in both the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters on Saturday. Well off his personal best time of 14:19.47, Kahssay finished behind John Guzman-Aguilar of Riverside College with a time of 15:18.00 in the 5000 meters, and also trailed the Tigers runner in the 10,000 meters. With a time of 32:20.12, almost two minutes off his best time, Kahssay will look to win a state title in either event after finishing in second place in both last year. Kahssay will be joined in the 10,000 meters by freshman Omar Torres (Warren HS), who came in sixth place at 33:11.10, while sophomore Mustafa Kahssay (Western HS) earned a ninth place finish in the 5000 meters at 15:57.73.

Sophomore Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS) recorded a fifth place finish in the 3000 meter steeplechase with a time of 9:38.50 to advance to the championships, with four Cerritos runners comprising the top nine finishers in the 1500 meters. Freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS) crossed the finish line in second place with a time of 4:01.98, with sophomores DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS) and Thomas Poston (El Dorado HS) coming in sixth and seventh places, respectively. Sophomore Adam Vega (La Serna HS/Whittier College) finished in seventh place in the 800 meters at 1:55.43, with freshman Elisha Toler coming in seventh place with a time of 48.14 in the 400 meters.

Full results - http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/29729.html