The Ventura College men's and women's cross country teams participated in the Santa Barbara City College Invitational Friday on a course that included 1200m of run on soft sand within 50 meters of the beach. The women did not have enough runners to post a team score while the men finished 12th of the 13 competing teams.
Alexi Tolosa, Brittany Gonzalez, Megan Kearney and Maria Villalobos did not compete of VC, leaving a non-scoring group to run the 5K course. Jordyn Vassaur (24th - 22.15), Amanda Gomez (36th - 23.00), Brigitte Kiesewetter (37th - 23.05), and Shannon McDermott (44th - 23.27) made up the foursome who competed on a challenging course with parts on the soft sand.
The men's team also ran down a few men, with the group consisting of Alexis Miron (48th - 23.53), Brett Bogdanski (64th - 24.26), Thomas Garcia (72nd - 25.19), Luis Cruz (74th - 25.31), Vincent Chavez (78th - 26.11), and Matthew Medina (79th - 26.14) placing 12th out 13 scoring teams.
"The next two weeks will determine who moves on and who stay home," said head coach Tony Veney, "So training through a few and giving some a chance to perform as the top runners was helpful for the whole squad."