The Cerritos College women's cross country team had four runners finish in the top 35 at the Golden West Invitational on Friday to come in fourth place overall. The Falcons, who finished with 132 team points, beat out three other South Coast Conference opponents and trailed only Mt. San Antonio College, who came in second place with 59 teams points. Glendale College won the meet with 49 team points. The team will travel to Arizona next Saturday for the Grand Canyon Invitational, which will take place at Grand Canyon University.

Sophomore Ariel Melendez (St. Paul HS) was the first Cerritos runner to complete the 5K course at Central Park in Huntington Beach, as she posted a time of 19:02.9. She was part of a small pack of runners and held off several competitors to finish in 11th place out of 144 runners. Freshman Maria Orosco (Katella HS) came in 19th place, and was just edged out of finishing a couple of places higher, but settled on a time of 19:24.8, while sophomore Stephanie Ruiz (Western HS) was 22nd overall with a time of 19:37.2.

It was freshman Marylu Pulido (Whittier HS) that was able to edge out a few runners at the finish to come in 35th place overall with a time of 20:18.2, while freshman Stephanie Perea (Downey HS) was the fifth Falcon runner to complete the team scoring, as she finished in 47th place overall in a time of 20:39.6.

Four other runners ran the course for Cerritos and they included Janet Salazar (Paramount HS; 21:00.8; 59th place), Elsa Vazquez Vallin (Warren HS; 21:09.6; 62nd place), Priscilla Melendez (El Rancho HS; 22:01.2; 77th place) and Maria Castaneda (Paramount HS; 23:55.5; 107th place).