The men’s cross country team placed 11th at the Mark Convert Open on Saturday, Sept. 5.

Cerritos College was one out of the eight community college teams that participated in the race.

There were a total of 13 squads that ran in the meet.

Cerritos College finished with a total of 297 team points in the 8K course. The total runners the team had in the race was seven.

The team finished with the total time of 2 hours, 19 minutes, 15 seconds. With an average of 27 minutes 51 seconds.

Head coach Bryan Ramos said, “Last year our average time improved for the men and the field this year was much better competition wise.”

On Saturday, Sept. 12, the cross country team will travel to Fresno, California, for the Fresno Invitational.

“There is going to be [competition] there if we are in the top five it’s going to be a good showing for the men,” Ramos said.

Freshman Anthony Lopez was the first Falcon to complete the 8K course and placed 65th overall with a time of 27 minutes 26 seconds.

He said, “It was great. It was my first college race, I was pretty excited for that and it went well but I expect a lot out of myself but it was a tough course [5 miles]”.

“For Fresno I want to be top twenty and run a fast time and be up there,” Lopez added.

Three seconds later freshman Carlos Mendoza crossed the finish line and placed 70th overall.

The Falcons look to be at top of the meet on Saturday, Sept. 12 at the Fresno Invitational and gain experience from the Mark Convert Open meet.