Competing in the St. Joseph's Invitational in New York on Saturday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in second place out of 20 teams. The Falcons, who brought their top seven runners, had their five scoring runners finish in the top 13 and compiled 43 teams points. They were edged out of the championship by Bloomfield (NY) College, who finished with 40 team points. The team will take a week off before competing in the South Coast Conference Championships on October 28 at Legg Lake in Whitter.

Taking second place out of 168 runners in the 8K run was sophomore Carlos Mendoza (Highland HS), who recorded a time of 27:20.1, which was :10 seconds off the winning time of 27:10.3 by Bloomfield College's Isaiah Curbelo. Just four seconds behind was freshman Abraxaz Sanchez (Schurr HS), who was the fifth runner to complete the course and was part of six runners who all finished within several seconds of each other at the head of the pack.

A trio of Falcons concluded the team scoring and were seven seconds apart. Freshman Cristhian Macias (Gardena HS) was the 11th overall runner in a time of 27:49.2, with sophomores Faustino Diaz (Warren HS) and Anthony Lopez (Downey HS) not far behind. Diaz came in 12th place with a clocking of 27:55.5, while Lopez recorded a time of 27:56.4.

The team's other two runners placed in the top 23 out of the entire race, as freshman Jhamani Long (Gahr HS) was 16th overall in 28:36.3, with Erick Ayala (Downey HS) 23th and posted a time of 29:02.2.

The invitational consisted of both community colleges and NCAA Division III schools.