With a small group of runners, the Pirates' men's and women's cross country teams had some impressive debut performances at the UC Riverside Invitational Saturday. Stina Johansson was the lone female competitor Saturday for VC, placing eighth overall in the Open Division race, first among community college runners.. For the men, Joshua Weinerth and Alex Canales also made their orange and black debut, coming in 55th and 77th, respectively, sixth and eighth among 2-year competitors.
Johansson covered the 5k course in 18:19, finishing eighth out of 183 runners representing NCAA Division I, II and III schools, in addition to community colleges from California and Arizona. Her standing was tops among all community college runners.
Weinerth, meanwhile ran the 8k course in 26:57 placing 55th out of 165 competitors, also representing all levels of collegiate competition. Canales covered the course 27:25, good for 77th overall. The pair were second and sixth among runners from two-year colleges.
Other VC runners included Sahit Jimenez (28:14) (113th/25th) and Xavier Terminello (33:14) (163rd/42nd).
"Stina showed her potential today for being an individual state title contender," said head coach Martin Maciel. "The men continue to piece together a potential team title contending group."
Ventura next runs at the Western State Conference Preview on Friday Oct. 1 at Moorpark College.