As the season continues, the Cerritos College men's and women's cross country teams have collectively improved on their finishes. Their latest was a double-win at the Lou Vasquez Invitational in San Francisco on Thursday. The team will take to the road one more time after a week off, as they travel to Goodyear, AZ to run in the Grand Canyon Invitational on October 6.

On the men's side, sophomore Munir Kahssay (Western HS) continues to dominate his competition, as he became the first Cerritos runner to break the 20:00 minute barrier for four miles, when he posted a time of 19:50.70 to come in first out of the 157 runners. As for the women, sophomore Karina Sanchez (Warren HS/ECC Compton Center) registered a time of 18:57.90 to come in third place out of the 102 runners that took to the 5K course.

As a team, the men finished with 27 points to edge Northern California powerhouse American River College, who came in second place with 35 team points. The Falcon women had four of the top eight finishers and compiled 34 team points to beat out second place De Anza College, who had 49 team points. Of the 23 runners that competed for the Falcons, all but one posted a personal best time at the invitational.

Sanchez was joined by freshman Kaela Crone (Kennedy HS), who came in sixth place in a time of 19:08.60, while the duo of sophomore Maira Solis (Roosevelt HS/Occidental College), who came in eighth place in 19:22.50 and freshman Kathia Avila (Cerritos HS), whose time of 19:24.60 and earned her a ninth place finish, helped the Falcons win the team title. Freshman Isabel Medina (Paramount HS) closed out the team scoring with her 14th place finish in a time of 19:42.90.

Joining Kahssay as one of the top five Cerritos runners to finish in the top 10 was freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS), who finished third overall with a time of 20:15.90, while freshmen Elvis Salinas (Norwalk HS) and sophomore Brandon Taylor (Mayfair HS) came in sixth and seventh places, respectively. Salinas came in with a time of 20:28.80 and edged Taylor's time of 20:29.50. Not far behind was sophomore Thomas Poston (El Dorado HS), whose time of 20:35,.00 earned him a 10th place finish.

The 12 men's runners all finished the race in the top 39 on the day, with freshman DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS; 14th place; 20:59.40), freshman Jonathan Villa (Long Beach Poly HS; 16th place; 21:05.50), sophomore Jonathan Lynn (Pacifica HS; 21st place; 21:17.50) and freshman David Pleitez (Lakewood HS; 26th place; 21:24.40) all running well.

Rounding out the women's side was the pairing of freshman Patsy Hurley (Mark Keppel HS), a 17th place finisher in 19:49.60, while sophomore Julia Plecnik (St. Joseph HS) saw her time of 19:57.60 earn her a 17th placing, while freshman Amineh Beltran (Warren HS) took 20th place in 19:58.30. The duo of Natalie Lenarduzzi (Marshall HS; 20:15.30) and Alexis Perez (Cantwell HS; 20:16.20) earned 24th and 25th places, respectively.