With the Cerritos College men's cross country team able to keep their runners in bunches, they concluded the Oxnard Invitational on Friday with a fifth place finish out of 13 schools. The Falcons finished with 147 team points and will carry that momentum to next Friday when they run in the SoCal Regional Invitational at El Dorado Park in Long Beach.

 

The first Falcon to complete the four-mile course was Noah Addison (Long Beach Poly HS), who cross the finish line in a time of 22:14.8, which put him in 37th place overall and was in a pack of eight runners. He was followed closely by Joshua Melendez (St. Paul HS), whose time of 22:19.0 put him in 39^th place out of 127 total runners. 

 

A trio of Cerritos runners finished within two seconds of each other and accounted for the team's scoring. Jacob Cosio (California HS) placed 51st overall in a time of 22:48.4, while teammates Matthew Alvarez (Downey HS), who touched up in 22.48.7 and Luke Dias (Fountain Valley HS) in 22.50.0 were the 52nd and 53rd finishers, respectively.

 

Next to finish after the trio was Edwin Mattias, who placed 61st overall in a time of 23:23.1, while David Morales (El Rancho HS) posted a time of 24:17.5, which put him in 78th place. Also running for the Falcons were Hector Hernandez (Paramount HS; 25:32.8; 93rd place), Jeff Chmiel (Lakewood HS; 25:44.4; 96th place), Jose Ortiz (Norwalk HS; 25:53.7; 98th place), Angel Serrano (Legacy HS; 26:17.1; 102nd place) and Justin Smith (Lakewood HS; 29:11.3; 115th place).