The Cerritos College men's track and field team was busy over the weekend, as they competed in the Occidental Distance Carnival on Friday and then a four-way meet at UC Irvine on Saturday. Although they lost all three dual meets against four-year competition, one of the school's best times in the 5000 meters was recorded at Occidental. This week, the squad will travel to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to compete in a meet with more four-year competition.

Occidental Distance Carnival: Sophomore Anthony Lozano (La Serna HS) put his name third on the school's top-five list in the 5000 meters, as he recorded a time of 14:39.52 to come in 16th place overall. Only one other community college runner finished ahead of him in the race. A trio of other Falcons ran in different heats, with sophomore Chris Ramirez (California HS) taking 68th place overall in 15:25.95. Also competing in the meet was sophomore Francisco Ortiz (Katella HS), who turned in the 20th fastest time in the 800 meters with a clocking of 1:55.86, with freshman Isaiah Marshall (Carson HS) finishing in 1:57.08 to come in 29th place. In the 3000 meter steeplechase, freshman Alejandro Rios (Chino HS) came in 24th place in a time of 10:15.87, which was the fifth best time in his heat.

UC Irvine 4-Way Meet: The Falcons were defeated by the other three teams, but recorded some strong times in the running events and good marks in the field events. They were defeated by UC Irvine (85-82), Cal State Long Beach (96-72) and Army (103-75). Being at UC Irvine, the team was able to meet up with former Cerritos track stars Munir Kahssay, Lily Trinh and Kelly Magana (pictured, left), In the 400 meters, freshman Virjilio Griggs (Warren, TX HS) posted a first place time of 48.53, wile freshman Juan Ward recorded a time of 14.68 to place second in the 110-meter HH, with freshman Dario Robinson (Schurr HS) taking fourth place in 14.93. Sophomore Muaz Ilyas (Fountain Valley HS) won the triple jump with a distance of 13.12 meters and also came in third place in the long jump at 6.19 meters on his final attempt. The quartet of Ward, Griggs, freshman Ricardo Thomas (Warren HS) and Clifford Scott (Carson HS) posted a first place time of 41.94 to win the 400-meter relay.