Competing in Arizona on Saturday at the Grand Canyon Invitational against four-year competition, the Cerritos College women's cross country team turned in a third place showing. The Falcons, who compiled 104 team points, finished in third place out of 12 colleges, and trailed only Division I competition University of Arizona and New Mexico State University. The team did finish ahead of Arizona State University, as well as Northern Arizona University and Grand Canyon University. Cerritos will now compete in the prestigious Mt. San Antonio Invitation on Friday, which is expected to draw the majority of community colleges from California.

Leading the way for the Falcons during the 5K run was sophomore Karina Sanchez (Warren HS/ECC Compton Center), who finished the course in 19:07.4, which was good for 10th place overall out of the 97 runners on the day. She edged New Mexico State's Caroline Lewiecki for 10th place, but was behind the initial pack of runners that completed the race. Looking to maintain their pack of runners, sophomore Julia Plecnik (St. Joseph HS) led the group of Cerritos runners, as she came in 19th place in a time of 19:30.0.

The next three runners helped compile the team score, with freshman Isabel Medina (Paramount HS) posting a time of 19:32.2 for a 22nd place finish, while sophomore Maira Solis (Roosevelt HS/Occidental College) came in 25th place with a time of 19:40.7 The fifth Cerritos runner to complete the course was freshman Kaela Crone (Kennedy HS), who was clocked in 19:46.5 to place 28th.

The remaining entries consisted of Amineh Beltran (Warren HS; 35th place; 20:10.7), Natalie Lenarduzzi (Marshall HS; 41st place; 20:25.8), Patsy Hurley (Mark Keppel HS; 44th place; 20:34.3), Kathia Avila (Cerritos HS; 54th place; 20:51.3), Angelyca Osnaya-Tyson (Long Beach Poly HS; 60th place; 21:10.1) and Alexis Perez (Cantwell HS; 66th place; 21:21.6).