Running in a stacked invitational on Friday, the Cerritos College women's cross country team finished seventh at the Manny Bautista XC Invitational. The Falcons compiled 210 team points while running the 5000 meter course at the Naval Training Center Park in San Diego. Next Saturday, the team will travel north to compete in the Bronco Invitational at Baylands Park in Santa Clara.

Of the six teams that finished ahead of Cerritos, one was Point Loma Nazarene University, an NCAA Division II college, as well as College of Southern Nevada, an NJCAA power. South Coast Conference rival Mt. San Antonio College won the team championship, while conference foes Long Beach City College, Los Angeles Harbor College and Pasadena City College trailed the Falcons.

Jayla Barnwell (Warren HS) led the team with a 26th place finish in a time of 20:15.60, with Esther Gonzalez (Warren HS) finishing in a group of runners and settled for 38th place with a clocking of 20:32.18. It was 41 seconds before the next Cerritos runner crossed the finish line, as Monserrat Malo (Warren HS) posted a time of 21:03.11, good for 57th place out of 181 runners. The fourth Falcons runner to complete the course was Samantha Thompson (Downey HS), who posted a 72nd place time of 21:33.89, with Viviana Martinez (Downey HS) rounding out the scoring runners with her 87th place time of 22:02.64.

Also competing on the day for the Falcons were Jessica Jordan (Narbonne HS; 22:34.44; 100th place), Keily Juarez (Warren HS; 22:52.29; 106th place) and Victoria Ruiz (California HS; 24:14.52; 130th place).