The men’s cross country team traveled to Fresno, California for the Fresno Invitational.

The team placed in sixth place with 186 team points on Sept. 11.

The team saw conference rivals Mt. San Antonio College place second with 58 team points in the Invitational, while American River College won the meet while 38 team points.

The team was composed of seven runners. The team’s total time in the four-mile race was 1:50:59. The average time for each runner was 22:11.

Head coach Bryan Ramos said, “We came in with goals being top five, but we placed in sixth and this was a big race for the men to be able to improve and beat some of the team[s] ranked ahead of us.”

Freshman Faustino Diaz led the way for the Falcons as he placed in 29th place with the time of 21:55.

Six of the seven runners for the team were freshmen.

The lone sophomore was Alejandro Rios.

“I feel like it was a big eye opener for us […] and we got a feel for the state course,” Rios admitted.

Ramos added, “Our goals have been to improve each week and we are looking at the long term.”

This was just a glimpse for the CCCAA State Championships because the team will race on the same course on Nov.21.