Results

Getting their first look at the course for the CCCAA State Championships, the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in fifth place at the Fresno Invitational on Saturday. South Coast Conference rival Mt. San Antonio College easily won the invitational, as their top five runners finished in the top seven places on the day. The Falcons finished with 180 team points and had their top three finishers complete the course in a large pack of runners. The team will now host the Southern California Preview Meet next Friday at Don Knabe Regional Park in Cerritos.

Leading the way for the Falcons were freshmen Jaime Quinones (Downey HS) and Pablo Calderon (Downey HS), who finished in 23rd and 24th places, respectively. Quinones crossed the finish line in 22:00.2 and was in the middle of a huge pack of runners, while Calderon was right behind and posted a time of 22:02.6. Just nine seconds behind them was freshman Fabian Zuniga (Downey HS), whose time of 22:12.3 put him in 30th place out of 164 total runners.

The next Cerritos runner to cross the finish line was freshman Vraj Patel (Cerritos HS), who took 46th place overall with his time of 22:40.1, with sophomore Adrian Casas (Gahr HS) completing the team scoring with a time of 23:22.4, good for 73rd place overall. 

Also competing for the Falcons were Ryan Bennett (California HS; 23:36.9; 78th place), Patrick Perez (Downey HS; 24:15.8; 105th place), Mario Rodriguez (Warren HS; 24:54.8; 121st place), Darion Blanding (Narbonne HS; 25:13.9; 125th place), Matthew Alcaraz (Schurr HS; 25:14.3; 126th place), Walter Ramirez (Mayfair HS; 25:34.3; 132nd place), Demian Sanchez Lopez (Schurr HS; 26:10.7; 139th place), Rafael Nieto (Kennedy HS; 27:16.1; 150th place) and Joseph Rivera (South El Monte HS; 28:04.0; 153rd place).