In one of largest fields of the season, the Cerritos College men's cross country team finished in fourth place at the Manny Bautista Invitational in San Diego on Friday. The Falcons, who compiled 105 team points, trailed on Mt. San Antonio College and host San Diego Mesa college from California, while Central Arizona Community College was the overall winner. The team will compete in their last meet before the South Coast Conference Championships when they travel to Santa Clara next Friday for the Bronco Invitational.

The race was so large that there was an overflow race, which consisted of 64 other racers to go along with the 223 runners in the main race. In the main race that covered four miles, Joshua Melendez (St. Paul HS) finished in the top 10, as he placed eighth place overall. His time of 20:39.1 was ahead of a group of four other runners who finished within six seconds of him. Not too far behind was Louis Santibanez (Warren HS), who was clocked in 20:54.4 for a 15th place finish, as he was edged out by two other runners in a pack, while he held off three more runners to lock in his placing.

The Falcons finished with back-to-back racers, with Joshua Morales (Warren HS) finishing in 28th place in a time of 21:13.4, while Jacob Cosio (California HS) right behind with a clocking of 21:15.0, good for 29th place on the day. The team score was closed out when Tyler Villanueva (Warren HS) crossed the finish line in 21:18.9, which put him in 34th place overall, with four other runners all finishing within a second of his time.

Cerritos was also represented by Axel Rebolledo-Ynostros (California HS; 21:26.2; 40th place), Noah Addison (Long Beach Poly HS; 21:30.9; 43rd place), Robert Guerrero (Long Beach Poly HS; 22:07.3; 68th place), Mikel Bautista (Warren HS; 22:29.9; 80th place), Daniel Gonzalez (Schurr HS; 22:30.4; 82nd place) and Matthew Alvarez (Warren HS; 22:33.6; 86th place) in the main race.

Those who competed in the overflow race included: Gerardo Rubio (Warren HS/Long Beach City College; 22:14.0; ninth place), Nikolas Dominguez (Downey HS; 23:03.4; 25th place), Joshua Chazari (Middle College HS; 23:34.0; 33rd place), Preston Yi (Cerritos HS; 23:38.6; 34th place), Anthony Ruiz (Long Beach Wilson HS; 24:00.9; 37th place), Shanal De Silva (Warren HS; 24:11.8; 38th place), Daniel Lopez (Schurr HS; 25:10.4; 45th place), Guillermo Ramos (Schurr HS; 25:11.6; 46th place), Tyler Alvarez (Schurr HS; 25:30.2; 49th place) and Yasiru De Silva (Warren HS; 27:01.4; 55th place).