On Friday, the Cerritos College men's cross country team competed in the Southern California Championships in Bakersfield at the Kern County Soccer Field. The Falcons finished with 525 team points, which put them in 18th place out of 28 schools. With just the top 14 schools advancing to the State Championships in two weeks, Cerritos only qualified one runner, who will advance to Fresno in two weeks.

The results of the SoCal Championships were delayed due to a power outage, but once everything was resolved, the top Cerritos runner to finish the four-mile course was freshman Jose Garcia Chavez (Norwalk HS), who turned in a 56th place time of 21:24.2. Because he was one of the top 20 finishers of non-qualifying schools, he has advanced to the state championships. 

It was over a minute before the next Falcon runner crossed the finish line, with freshman Aiden House-Ortiz (Lakewood HS) recording a time of 22:38.6, putting him in 105th place out of 190 total runners. There were many packs of runners who completed the course together, which included a pair of Cerritos runners that helped comprise the team scoring. Sophomore Rogelio Garcia (Salesian HS) was timed in 23:07.7, which put him in 119th place on the day, while freshman Jeff Chmiel (Lakewood HS) was clocked in 23:15.1, putting him in 123rd place overall.

Closing out the team scoring was freshman Alan Diaz (Katella HS), as his time of 23:41.0 earned him a 134th place finish, while also competing for the Falcons were Jose Ortiz (Norwalk HS; 25:03.6; 159th place) and Daniel Gomez (Santa Fe HS; 25:06.6; 160th place).