On the strength of a third place finish by sophomore Munir Kahssay (Western HS), the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in fourth place out of 18 schools at the Mark Covert Classicc, which was hosted by Cal State Fullerton and held at Carbon Canyon Park in Brea. As a team, the Falcons compiled 115 team points and was just edged out of third place by Pomona-Pitzer, who finished with 113 team points. Loyola Marymount University won the team title with 23 team points, with Cal State Long Beach in second place with 66 points. Cerritos was the top community college at the invitational, which consisted of five others on the day. The team will compete in the Palomar Invitational at Guajome Park in Oceanside next Friday.

Kahssay compted the 8K race in a time of 25:15.5, which was just under a minute behind overall winner, Heath Reedy, who ran as in independent. The top two finishers were independent, with Kahssay the top runner affiliated with a college. He bested the second comminity college runner to finish - freshman teammate Jonathan Bazinet (California HS) - by 1:02, with Bazinet the 14th overall finisher, who recorded a time of 26:17.2.

The top five Cerritos runners, who help comprise the team score, finished less than two minutes apart, with sophomore Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS) coming in 36th place overall in a time of 26:51.2, while freshman DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS) finishing the course in 27:07.7, good for 46th place out of the 208 runners. Closing out the team scoring was freshman Elvis Salinas (Norwalk HS), who came in 48th place in 27:10.3.

Twelve more runners took to the course on Saturday, with freshman Oscar Contreras (Huntington Park HS; 56th place; 27:20.6), sophomore Thomas Poston (El Dorado HS, 71st place; 27:33.4), freshman David Pleitez (Lakewood HS, 73rd place; 27:34.7) and freshman Steven Hernandez (Kennedy HS; 107th place; 28:13.9) all finishing within three minutes of Kahssay on the day.