Thanks to their early grouping, the Pasadena City College women's cross country team was able to finish in a tie for third place with Cerritos College at the South Coast Conference Championships on Friday. The meet, which was a 5K run at Heartwell Park in Lakewood, saw the Falcons just miss out on securing third place for themselves, as they both posted 89 points, while Mt. San Antonio College (36 team points) and Los Angeles Trade-Tech College (54 team points) took the top two spots.

The team will now run in the South California Championships, which will take place at Central Park in Santa Clarita next Friday. Cerritos ran that course two months ago in the SoCal Preview Meet and finished in eighth place.

There were several places where the Falcons could have locked down third place by themselves. The fourth finisher for the Lancers, Christina Shamirian, was awarded 19th place with a time of 20:07.00, as she finished in a dead heat with sophomore Patricia Hurley (Mark Keppel HS), who took 20th place in 20:07.01. Another close finish came when Mt. SAC's Ruby Medina crossed the finish line in 20:19.00 for 23rd place, which was one second head of sophomore Kaela Crone (Kennedy HS), who was the final Cerritos runner, and garnered 24th place. Had either of those two Falcon runners finished ahead of their competitor, Cerritos would have taken third place by themselves.

Freshman Stephanie Ruiz (Western HS) was the first Falcon runner to complete the course, as she came in 8th place, with a time of 19:36.00, with Laura Aceves of East Los Angeles College easily winning the individual title in a time of 18:12.00. Sophomore Isabel Medina (Paramount HS) came in 15th place overall with a time of 19:50.00, while Hurley, freshman Ariel Melendez (St. Paul HS), who came in 22nd place in 20:14.00) and Crone, who comprised the top five runners, rounded out the team scoring.

Sophomore Kathia Avila (Cerritos HS) also ran a strong race, as she came in 26th place out of 68 runners with a time of 20:38.00. Those who also ran for the Falcons included Maddy Focht (Long Beach Poly HS; 20:54.00; 31st place), Janet Salazar (Paramount HS; 21:14.00; 35th place), Angelyca Osnaya-Tyson (Long Beach Poly HS; 21:23.00; 38th place); Natalie Lenarduzzi (John Marshall HS; 22:09.00; 46th place) and Katherine De La Torre (Pomona Catholic HS; 22:17.00; 48th place).