In the tightest of scores, the Cerritos College women's cross country team edged out College of the Canyons at the Bakersfield Invitational on Friday. The Falcons won the meet with 55 team points, while the Cougars finished with 56 team points. Cerritos will now compete in the Manny Bautista Cross Country Invitational at NTC Park in San Diego next Friday.

Although Canyons had the overall winner on the 5000 meter course, the Falcons helped their cause with the sixth and eighth place overall finishers. The team was able to bunch their runners together, which helped their team score. Jayla Barnwell (Warren HS) placed sixth with a time of 20:22.62, with Esther Gonzalez (Warren HS) seeing her time of 20:27.61 earn her the eighth place result out of 58 runners.

When the Cougars posted the 12th and 13th place finishers, the Falcons were able to respond with Samantha Thompson (Downey HS) and her 16th place time of 21:17.73, with teammate Viviana Martinez (Downey HS) right on her heels in 17th place when she crossed the finish line in 21:18.61.

With four runners on each side in the books, the overall champion would come from which team would see their fifth scoring runner complete the course. Cerritos came away with the title when Monserrat Malo (Warren HS) saw her time of 21:56.75 put her in 24th place, with Canyons runner Ruby Salazar five seconds behind her to come in 25th place.

Cerritos also had Keily Juarez (Warren HS) come in 26th place in 22:22.58, with Jessica Jordan posting (Narbonne HS) a 34th place time of 22:54.94. Victoria Ruiz (California HS) also competed on the day and posted a time of 23:49.60, good for 39th place.