It was a tight battle for second through fourth place at the South Coast Conference Championships on Friday at Mt. San Antonio College. The host Mounties won the team title with 35 team points, while Long Beach City College, the Falcons and Los Angeles Harbor College were all fighting for second place. The Vikings came away with the runner-up spot with 90 team points, followed by Cerritos with 91 points, with the Seahawks settling for fourth place with 93 team points. The team will compete in the Southern California Championships next Saturday at NTC Park in San Diego.

Although the Falcons were able to place third as a team, their top two runners finished in 13th and 14th places respectively over the three-mile course. Both LA Harbor and LB City had two runners complete the course before Cerritos, but were able to jump the Seahawks due to their runners finishing in bunches.

Esther Gonzalez (Warren HS) finished in 13th place out of 53 runners in a time of 20:19.70, while teammate Monserrat Malo (Warren HS) was right behind in 14th place at 20:27.70. The pairing of Jayla Barnwell (Warren HS) and Samantha Thompson (Downey HS) finished two places apart, which helped with the team scoring. Barnwell's time of 20:43.20 put her in 18th place, while Thompson posted a 20th place time of 20:54.70.

As a result of their finish in the race, Gonzalez and Malo earned 2nd Team All-South Coast Conference recognition.

What secured the third place finish ahead of Los Angeles Harbor for Cerritos were those two recording top 20 times, with the fifth runner, Victoria Ruiz (California HS) placing 26th overall in a time of 21:17.20. By contrast, the Seahawks saw their fourth and fifth place runners come in 30th and 32nd places, respectively after their top two runners were fourth and sixth place on the day.

Also running for Cerritos were Viviana Martinez (Downey HS; 22:06.30; 31st place), Jessica Jordan (Narbonne HS; 22:26.60; 35th place), Keily Juarez (Warren HS; 23:09.90; 38th place) and Maricela Herrera (Valencia HS; 24:34.00; 43rd place).