WALNUT – Four Long Beach area cross country programs started their Saturday morning at Mt. San Antonio College needing a top seven team finish at the CIF-SS finals to advance to next weekend's state championship in Fresno.

While St. John Bosco and Poly High's boys and girls programs fell short, history was made when Warren won the school's first cross country championship.

Warren's boys beat national power Arcadia, 69-77, to earn a CIF-SS Division 1 championship behind junior standout Ben Gonzalez, who finished fourth among the 106-man field with a time of 14:45. The Bears' Jonathan Rodriguez (15:01) and Michael Hernandez (15:02) were sixth and seventh respectively, to give Warren three top-10 runners.

“We started our freshman year getting to know each other and building trust, and everything we did from the first day led to this championship,” Gonzalez said. “We really believed in one another, and I think we ran our best race in our most important race of the year.”