Photo by Andre Shirvanian / The Loyalist

The Loyola cross country team started off the season strong at the Cerritos Invitational, placing 1st in the boy’s varsity race.

Loyola’s varsity team won with a score of 42 points. Arcadia High School placed second, scoring 77 points. Junior Anthony Stone came in 2nd with a time of 14:55.9, and senior Roberto Ruelas came in 6th with a time of 15:03.7.

Ruelas said, “Overall, I think I did well. I’m usually fifth man but today I felt good the entire race. We were all as a pack and at the second mile, I decided to push it. Everyone followed me, so it worked out well.”

Head coach Lalo Diaz said, “We were a little disappointed with the fact that Long Beach Polytechnic did not show up because they are ranked 3rd in Division I. We were looking forward to competing against them. But that aside, I was happy by our middle pack. We had a great 2-3-4 pack, but I’m a little concerned about the gap between our 4th and 5th man. This is the first race of the year, and it lets us know where we are. It assesses what we need to do, and it’s a good start point.”

Stone also showed concern about gaps and said, “I think we could bring our packing closer. I’m confident we can improve on that as the season goes on.”