With their 15th place finish at the Southern California Championships on Friday, the Cerritos College women's cross country team has qualified for the CCCAA State Championships. The Falcons compiled 371 team points in the 5K race, which was held at Irvine Regional Park on Friday. The state championships will be held at Woodward Park in Fresno on November 19.
The top 14 teams automatically qualify for the state championships, but because there weren't enough schools from Northern California competing with at least five runners, four more teams from SoCal were added to the championships. Glendale College won the team championship with 45 team points, with three other teams from the South Coast Conference finishing ahead of Cerritos.
Leading the way for the Falcons was freshman Rebecca Harris (Buena Park HS), who came in 58th place overall out of 185 runners with a time of 20:42.9. As a team, Cerritos had their next five runners finish within a minute of each other. But with so many runners on the course, they were spread out and it added to their team point total.
Freshman Sabrina Padilla (Montebello HS) posted a 76th place time of 21:15.8, with freshman Gabrielle Mendoza (Schurr HS) just six seconds behind. She earned 80th place overall with her clocking of 21:21.1, while freshman Raquel Hernandez (Downey HS) came in 86th place in a time of 21:28.8. Rounding out the team's five scoring runners was freshman Tyler Simpson (Dominguez HS) with her 92nd place time of 21:48.2.
Also running for the Falcons were sophomore Adriana Velasco (Downey HS), who came in 103rd place in 22:14.2, while freshman Katherine Batres (Schurr HS) finished the course in 22:24.0, which put her in 109th place.

November 19, 2016
W. Cross Country: Falcons come in 13th place at State Championships

November 4, 2016
W. Cross Country: Team qualifies as at-large team for state

October 28, 2016
W. Cross Country: Cerritos takes fifth at SCC Championships

October 15, 2016
W. Cross Country: Falcons win St. Joseph's Invitational

October 7, 2016
W. Cross Country: Blocking runners earns team 4th place finish

September 23, 2016
W. Cross Country: Ninth place finish for the Falcons at the GoWest Invite

September 16, 2016
W. Cross Country: Falcons take sixth at SoCal Preview Meet

September 10, 2016
W. Cross Country: Cerritos places 8th at Fresno Invite

September 2, 2016
W. Cross Country: First meet nets seventh place finish