Splitting their team to compete in both the Top 7 and Overflow races at the Southern California Preview Meet at Fairview Park on Saturday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team won the team title in the overflow race, while they recorded the top runner in the Top 7 race and came in second place as a team. With temperatures in over 100 degrees on the day, all of the runners struggled to make it through the race. The meet was used as a training session to prepare for the Lou Vasquez Invitational, which will take place on Thursday at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

In the Top seven race. sophomore Munir Kahssay (Western HS) became the second Falcon in a row to win the race, as his time of 20:38.05 was two seconds ahead of second place finisher Luis Luna of American River College. Last year, Daniel Herrera won the race and is now competing for UCLA. As a team, Cerritos finished in second place with 59 team points, while American River won the overall title with 23 points, as their top five runners all finished in the top 10 on the day. The second place finish was the best ever at that race by the Falcons.

Focusing on running as a pack for the first two miles of the race, most of the team was able to stay close after freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS) finished in ninth place out of the 184 runners with a time of 21:09.70, with freshman Jonathan Villa (Long Beach Poly HS) coming in 15th place in 21:24.25. The trio of freshman Elvis Salinas (Norwalk HS), who came in 21st place at 21:30.08, sophomore Thomas Poston (El Dorado HS), whose time of 21:30.51 earned him 22nd place and freshman DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS) with a time of 21:34.56 to come in 23rd place, all stayed together during the race. Finishing up the top seven runners was sophomore Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS), who placed 54th in a time of 22:29.07.

In the overflow race - a four-mile run - which consisted of 15 Cerritos runners, the team came in first place with 44 team points and edged Glendale College, who had 46 points. Freshman David Pleitez (Lakewood HS) came in fourth place with a time of 22:10.20, while freshman Steven Hernandez (Kennedy HS) was right behind in 22:15.70 to come in sixth place. Also running well were freshman Mustafa Kahssay (Kennedy HS), who placed eighth in 22:26.80 and sophomore Jonathan Lynn (Pacifica HS), whose time of 22:35.67 earned him 11th place. The top six runners also consisted of sophomore Joe Magana (Cantwell HS; 16th place; 22:43.59) and freshman Oscar Contreras (Huntington Park HS; 18th place; 22:49.51).