The Ventura College women's and men's cross country teams had a strong day of running Friday at the Southern California Regional Preview Meet held at Central Park in Santa Clarita. Both teams posted their best finish in recent memory with the women coming n fourth out of 24 scoring teams while the men were eighth of 27 teams. Adan Cruz finished 9th to lead the VC men while Marissa Gonzales came in 10th place overall for the Pirate women.
The meet is a preview of the Southern California Regional Championships to be held on the same course on Friday Nov. 3. The Pirate women came in fourth with 124 team points, behind Glendale (84 points), Canyons (90) and Mt. San Antonio (96). VC finished ahead of Riverside (135), Cerritos (192) and Moorpark (201).
Gonzales led the way with her top-10 finish, covering the 5k course in 19:54 and earning eight team points. She led four Pirate runners in the top-26, including Tatiana Garcia (20:31, 16th), Fabiola Flores Gomez (17th, 20:34, 15) and Macy Schmidt (26th, 20:51, 23). Rounding out the VC competitors in the women's race were Ashley Valdavinos, (78th, 22:43, 64), Cecilia Cano (104th, 23:23, 78), Allison Hermann (111th, 23:40, 85) and Kiara Estrada (156th, 25:25). A total of 210 women competed in the race.
"The SoCal Preview was the women's first meet with the whole team racing, and this race has set the standard for the season," said women's head coach Melody Axtell. "This team has a lot of work to do, but (they are) tough and hungry for competition."
The men's team followed up with their own strong performance in the 4-mile race. The Pirates earned 274 team points for eighth place, kicking at the heels of sixth-place El Camino (220 points) and seventh-place Cuesta (253). Mt. San Antonio won the meet with a remarkable 42 points. Ventura was the only county school in the top-10 and was the third Western State Conference squad in the final results.
Cruz ran in 9th place out of 305 finishers, traversing the course in 21:46, followed by Alex Ambriz (45th, 22:35, 38 points), Jacob Hernandez (50th, 22:38, 41), Juan Martinez (130th, 23:44, 92), Evan Pederson (134th, 23:47, 94) Ernie Nombrano (146th, 23:59, 101), and Dan Thow (148th, 24:02, 103) rounding out VC's top-7.
"I think the men ran well today," commented head coach Tony Veney. "But there is still a ways to go before this team gels into the squad we all believe they can be. The team mantra has always been 'Give All You Have', and they did exactly that today."
The Pirate harriers next hit the road for the annual Bakersfield Invitational held at the Kern County Soccer Park on Friday Sept. 22. This year's edition has special importance as it serves as the site of the WSC Championships in late October, giving the teams a chance to get a good feel for the championship course. The women's' 5k goes off at 1:30 pm while the men's 4-mile race starts at 2:15 pm.