Competing in the SoCal Preview Meet in Van Nuys on Friday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team placed ninth out of 29 complete teams. The Falcons finished with 277 team points, with South Coast Conference rival Mt. San Antonio College winning the event with 53 team points. The only other conference team to finish ahead of them was El Camino, who placed sixth with 185 team points. Cerritos will run next Friday in the Golden West Invitational at Central Park in Huntington Beach.

Sophomore Anthony Lozano (La Serna HS, pictured left) completed the four-mile course in a strong time of 20:45.4 and was 15th overall, while he was quickly joined by sophomore Francisco Ortiz (Katella HS), whose time of 20:47.8 put him in 17th place. It was the ability of the Falcons to block their runners that helped them move up in the team standings.

A dropoff for the next three runners that comprised the team score was a result of the volume of runners on the course, as 195 experienced the race. Freshman Joshua Quarles (Cerritos HS) was the next Falcon to cross the finish line, as he was clocked in 21:48.6, with sophomore Donaldo Lopez (Gahr HS) right behind in 21:52.5, good for 82nd place. Sophomore George Robinson (Washington Prep HS) was the fifth team runner, and he came in 93rd with a time of 22:03.8.

A pair of other runners competed as part of the seven-man crew, with freshman Eric Sanchez (Katella HS) taking 137th place in 22:449.9, while freshman Zacharie Ponce (Long Beach Poly HS) posting a time of 23:31.3 to come in 165th place.

There was also an overflow race and the team came in sixth place, with 23 schools entering at least one runner. The top finisher for the Falcons was freshman Alejandro Rios (Chino HS), who came in 15th place with a time of 23:02.8 over the same course.