Competing at an elevation of 5,200 feet, the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in third place out of seven teams on Saturday at the Grand Canyon (AZ) Invitational. The Falcons, who had three of the top 11 runners to complete the course, compiled 75 team points and trailed only Arizona Christian University, who won the meet with 44 team points, and Diné (AZ) College, who had 62 points for second place. The team will now compete in the Brubaker Invitational at Irvine Regional Park on Friday. It's their final meet until the South Coast Conference Championships on October 31.

Leading the way for Cerritos was sophomore Francisco Ortiz (Katella HS), who came in fourth place out of 63 runners with a time of 27:44.7, which was just three second behind the third place finisher. Not far behind was sophomore Anthony Lozano (La Serna HS) with a time of 28:43.3 for seventh place, as held off Blake Fisher of Mesa CC and his time of 28:43.7. Just nine seconds later, freshman Eric Sanchez (Katella HS) turned in an 11th place time of 28:52.9 and was less than a second from coming in 10th place.

Sophomore George Robinson (Washington Prep HS) was the fourth Falcon to finish, as he was clocked in 30:12.2 for 23rd place, with a trio of runners vying for the fifth scoring position. Freshman Zacharie Ponce (Long Beach Poly HS) beat out a pair of teammates to come in 31st place overall with a time of 31:07.8. The duo of freshman Alejandro Rios (Chino HS), who finished in 31:12.7 and sophomore Jorge Ayala (Artesia HS) with his time of 31:18.9, came in 32nd and 33rd places, respectively.

Also competing on the day were Donaldo Lopez (Gahr HS; 36th place; 31:38.2), James Yanez (Long Beach Wilson HS; 42nd place; 31:12.9), Marco Zaragoza (Artesia HS; 45th place; 32:50.8), Daniel Eid (Mayfair HS; 48th place; 33:19.1) and Ryan Lopez (Montebello HS; 56th place; 34:49.5).