Continuing one of their best seasons in recent years, the Cerritos College women's cross country team finished in a close fourth place at the Southern California Championships on Saturday at Fairview Park. The Falcons, who finished with 133 team points, just missed out on third place as Moorpark College had 130 points, while Orange Coast won the title with 53 team points and Glendale College placed second with 105 points. Cerritos will now look for a strong showing at the State Championships, which will take place on November 17 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

With sophomores Maira Solis (Roosevelt HS/Occidental College) and Karina Sanchez (Warren HS/ECC Comptpon Center) leading the way, the Falcons had strong hopes of a top four finish, which they accomplished. Solis came in 15th place out of the 205 runners with a time of 19:21.58 over the 5K course, while Sanchez was close behind in 19th place at 19:32.67. For Moorpark, they saw their top two runners come in third and seventh place, and although Cerritos had their fourth and fifth runners finish ahead of the Raiders, it wasn't enough to overtake them for third place.

Freshmen Isabel Medina (Paramount HS), Patsy Hurley (Mark Keppel HS) and Kaela Crone (Kennedy HS) crossed the finish line just :18 seconds apart to round out the top five runners that compile the team scoring. Medina was 28th overall in 19:46.57, with Hurley taking 33rd place at 19:55.55 and Crone posting a time of 20:04.49, which earned her 40th place.

Also competing for Cerritos were sophomore Julia Plecnik (St. Joseph HS), who came in 46th place at 20:12.37 and freshman Amineh Beltran (Warren HS) with a time of 21:16.18 for 86th place.