With two runners finishing in the top six at the Mark Covert Classic, the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in fourth place among non-Division I colleges on Saturday. The Falcons finished with 94 team points and trailed only Instride TC, who placed first with 58 points, followed by Orange Coast College and Glendale College, who each finished with 61 team points. Next Saturday, the team will travel to the Fresno Invitational at Woodward Park, site of the state championships.

In the 8K race at Brea Canyon Park, the duo of sophomores Anthony Lozano (La Serna HS) and Francisco Ortiz (Katella HS) ran strong races in the hot temperatures. As for Lozano (pictured, left), his time of 26:40.7 was good for third place out of the 111 runners and edged fourth place Lucio Ramirez of Orange Coast by one second. Ortiz was the sixth runner to cross the finish line, as he turned in a time of 27:06.7 and edged his closest competition by three seconds.

There were several tight blocks of runners to reach the finish line and sophomore Donaldo Lopez (Gahr HS) was ahead of one of them, as he took 37th place overall in 28:31.2, with freshman Daniel Garcia (Whittier HS) the part of another pack and was clocked in 28:56.7, good for 47th place. The fifth runner to help comprise the team scoring was freshman Joshua Quarles (Cerritos HS), who edged teammate sophomore George Robinson (Washington Prep HS). Quarles finished in 50th place overall in a time of 29:13.3, with Robinson in 51st at 29:13.6.

The Falcons had five other runners competing on the day and they consisted of Eric Sanchez (Katella HS; 29:27.0, 54th place), Alejandro Rios (Chino HS; 30:28.3; 74th place); James Yanez (Long Beach Wilson HS; 31:00.6; 84th place); Daniel Eid (Mayfair HS; 33:38.1; 105th place) and Ryan Lopez (Montebello HS; 34:08.5; 106th place).