Top-conference placing is absolutely the goal for both men and women’s cross country teams.

Anthony Lozano, the men’s cross country team captain, said, “This year, I’m mainly focusing on trying to win our conference and (get better) as a team (than) last year; we finished fourth in state, so this year, we are working to improve that.”

The women are going for the same goal, as well.

Marylu Pulido, the women’s cross country team captain, hopes to place in the top three.

“The (women) are looking pretty good, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we can win. But as long as we’re all working together, I’m pretty sure we can place pretty high up,” she said.

Coach Brian Ramos echoes those same hopes, as well.

“Our first goal is conference and our main competitors are (Mt. San Antonio), from there, qualify (for) regionals and do well there,” he said.

The men and women both had a meet on Sept. 6 at Woodwark Park.

According to the Cerritos Falcons website, the men came out in eighth place with 232 points out of 19 teams that were present, while the women came out in third place with 105 points out of 17 teams.

The men’s star performer was Francisco Ortiz, who came in 30th place out of 201 runners and finished in a time of 21:48.74.

The women’s star performer was Ariel Mendez, coming in eighth out of 127 runners and finished at a time of 19:11.33.

The standards have been set high.

Coach Ramos said, “For the women, definitely, top three in regionals and going into state top three for them; that’s our goal,. And for the men, we want to do the same.”

The team has already competed in two meets, so far.

The men and women’s cross country teams next meet is Saturday at Woodley Park in Van Nuys for the Southern California Preview meet.