The Cerritos College women's cross country team had four of the top seven finishers at the Embry Riddle (AZ) University Invitational on Saturday, which helped them win the team championship. It was the first invitational win for the Falcons, who have already finished second, third and fourth twice so far this season. The team will now run in the Brubaker Invitational on Friday at Irvine Regional Park.

Running the 5K in the mile-high elevation at Grand Canyon (AZ) University, it was a quartet of Falcon runners who completed the course within :27 seconds of each other, which helped them lock down first place. As a team, Cerritos had 41 points and edged out second place Arizona Christian College, who had 47 points. There were seven full teams in the meet, with the Falcons the only school from California.

Sophomore Ariel Melendez (St. Paul HS, pictured, left) was the first Cerritos runner to finish, as her time of 20:35.3 earned her third place overall out of the 57 total runners. A trio of Falcon runners accounted for the fifth through seven place runners, with freshman Maria Orosco (Katella HS) earning fifth place in 20:50.6 and edged teammates Stephanie Ruiz (Western HS) and Marylu Pulido (Whittier HS), whose times of 20:53.2 and 21:02.5 were good for sixth and seventh places, respectively.

The fifth runner to round out the team scoring was freshman Stephanie Perea (Downey HS), who came in with a time of 22:01.2, which was good for 22nd overall. Also competing for the Falcons on the day were Jocelyn Orozco (Downey HS, 24th place, 22:05.2), Janet Salazar (Paramount HS, 26th place, 22:25.4), Priscilla Melendez (El Rancho HS, 30th place, 22:36.2), Joanna Bautista (Downey HS, 31st place, 22:49.0), Elsa Vazquez Vallin (Warren HS, 32nd place, 22:49.1) and Tiffany Hernandez (Warren HS, 38th place, 24:17.3).