Led by a good grouping of runners, the Cerritos College women's cross country team beat out 10 other schools to win the Lou Vasquez Invitational in San Francisco on Thursday. The Falcons had a combined time of 100:40, which was a little more than a minute faster than second place American River College, who compiled a time of 101:05. The team will now compete in the Golden West Invitational at Central Park in Huntington Beach on Friday.

Leading the way for Cerritos was sophomore Kathia Avila (Cerritos HS), who completed the course in a time of 19:23, which was good enough for fourth place. The winning time of 18:01 was turned in by Yesenia Silva of College of the Sequoias. Not far behind Avila was freshman Stephanie Ruiz (Western HS), whose time of 19:55 put her in seventh place, with the next three Falcon runners finishing with seven seconds of each other.

Sophomore Kaela Crone (Kennedy HS) placed 15th overall in 20:23, with the tandem of sophomores Isabel Medina (Paramount HS) and Patricia Hurley coming in 18th place (20:29) and 19th place (20:30), respectively. Freshman Ariel Melendez (St. Paul HS) also ran a strong race, with her time of 20:41 earning her a 22nd place.

Also running for the Falcons were Maddy Focht (Long Beach Poly HS; 40th place; 21:28), Natalie Lenarduzzi (John Marshall HS; 41st place; 21:31), Janet Salazar (Paramount HS; 44th place; 21:39) and Katherine De La Torre (Pomona Catholic HS; 55th place; 22:01).