For the first time in the 43 years they have fielded a team, the Cerritos College men's cross country team captured the South Coast Conference championship. The Falcons edged second-place LA Trade Tech, 28-38, as 14 runners combined from the two colleges finished in the top 20 of the 4-mile race. Cerritos sophomore Munir Kahssay (Western HS) crossed the finish line as the overall men's winner in a time of 19 minutes, 27.33 seconds. Sophomore teammate Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS) was runner-up at 19:39.20. LA Trade Tech sophomores Juan Rodriguez (19:51.12) and Omar Cortes (19:52.74) finished third and fourth, respectively in the race at Griffith Park on Thursday morning.

Kahssay is the second straight Falcons' runner to win the individual race after Daniel Herrera won at last year's SCC finals. Kahssay improved from his third place finish as a freshman. Taylor jumped 16 places from the 2011 finals. Cerritos won under head coach Christopher Richardson, who is in his first year directing the Falcons' program. In addition to the men winning the championship, Richardson guided the women to the conference championship, marking the first time since 2002 that one school won both titles in the same year.

After Kahssay and Taylor crossed the finish line as the top two runners, freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS) came in seventh place with a time of 20:12.24. The three runners earned 1st Team All-South Coast Conference honors. Just missing out on being named 1st Team - but earning 2nd Team recognition - was freshman DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS), whose time of 20:19.61 placed him eighth overall. Rounding out the fifth Falcon runner to compile their team score was freshman Oscar Contreras (Huntington Park HS), who came in 10th place with a time of 20:30.23. Contreras was also a 2nd Team selection.

Cerritos had a total of 23 runners in the event with five more runners finishing in the top 30 out of the 105 runners that competed. Also running well for the Falcons were Elvis Salinas (Norwalk HS; 13th place; 20:37.50),who was named All-SCC 2nd Team, David Pleitez (Lakewood HS; 20th place; 20:45.79), Mustafa Kahssay (Western HS; 21st place; 20:47.89), Jonathan Villa (Long Beach Poly HS; 22nd place; 20:48.83) and Steven Hernandez (Kennedy HS; 28th place; 21:11.47)