The Cerritos College women's cross country team had their top four runners finish among the top 23 runners at the Fresno Invitational on Saturday. The end result for the Falcons was third place out of 17 teams and finished with 105 team points. They trailed only College of the Canyons, who won the meet with 44 points, while Glendale College was in second place with 66 points. The team did edge out South Coast Conference rival Mt. San Antonio College, who finished in fourth place with 115 points. The team will now compete in the SoCal Preview Meet at Woodley Park in Van Nuys on Friday morning.

Sophomore Ariel Melendez (St. Paul HS) was eighth out of 137 total runners and completed the 3.1 mile course in a time of 19:11.33. It's the same course that will be run for the state championships in November. Not far behind Melendez was sophomore Stephanie Ruiz (Western HS), who pulled ahead of a small pack of runners to finish in 13th place overall with a time of 19:33.97. Although 19 seconds separated them, the Falcons had their next two runners finished just two places apart, which helped them with their third place team finish.

Freshman Marylu Pulido (Whittier HS) was the 21st runner to complete the course and was clocked in 19:47.31, while freshman Maria Orosco (Katella HS) took 23rd overall with a time of 20:03.30. The Falcons fifth runner that completed their team scoring was freshman Joanna Bautista (Downey HS), with a 40th place time of 20:48.94.

Four more runners made the trip north to run the race, with sophomore Janet Salazar (Paramount HS) coming in 51st place overall with a time of 21:10.01, while there was a big dropoff before the next Cerritos competitor finished. Coming in 88th place with a time of 22:22.72 was Tiffany Hernandez (Warren HS), while Priscilla Melendez (El Rancho HS) finished in a time of 22:47.21 for a 95th place finish. The final runner was Irubi Ramirez (Warren HS), who came in 103rd place with a time of 23:42.36.