The Ventura College women's cross country team punched their ticket to the Southern California finals with a fourth place team finish in the Western State Conference championships Friday at Arroyo Verde Park. On the men's side, Anthony Rivas qualified for the regionals as an individual as the Pirate men finished on the outside of the qualifying teams.
The Pirate women received a big effort from Brigitte Kiesewetter who scored No. 1 for the Pirates and garnered her second-team All-WSC honors. Brigitte placed 22nd overall (22.30) and was followed to the line by Megan Kearney (25th – 22.45, second-team All-WSC), Jordyn Vassaur (27th – 22.57, second-team All-WSC), Maria Villalobos (31st – 23.20, honorable mention All-WSC), Alexi Tolosa (32nd – 23.31, honorable mention All-WSC), Amanda Gomez (38th – 23.45), Brittany Gonzalez (40th – 23.48) and Shannon McDermott (72nd – 26.31).
In the 5k women's race, Glendale College won the team title followed by Canyons, Bakersfield, VC, Santa Barbara, Citrus and Santa Monica who all qualified for the regionals by virtue of their top-seven finish.
The Ventura men's squad was not as fortunate, finishing a non-team qualifying ninth of the 12 competing teams. They recently lost the services of their No. 3 runner, which would have made a significant difference in the final team outcome. On a brighter note, Rivas (24th – 23.24) earned second-team All-WSC honors and qualified as an individual for the SoCal finals. He was supported by Alexis Miron (57th – 24.46), Brett Bogdanski (58th – 24.46), Sam Boyle (59th – 25.03), Jaime Luna (64th – 25.08), Vincent Chavez (73rd – 25.57), Paul Gonzalez (77th – 26.16), Matthew Medina (99th – 26.29), Christian Rodriguez (106th – 27.10), Luis Cruz (117th – 28.13) and Edgar Cerda (122nd – 29.39).
Canyons, Cuesta, Glendale, Citrus, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, and Bakersfield will represent the conference in two weeks at the 4-mile regionals.
"I am really proud of the way both teams ran today," said head coach, Tony Veney. "The women took one more step toward the year end goal of participating (at state) in Fresno November 22. And even though the men's team did not advance, our team average dropped almost thirty seconds per man. I'm sure Anthony Rivas will carry the banner for the men with great distinction."
The SoCal Championships will be held at Woodley Park in Van Nuys on Friday Nov. 7 with the women's race scheduled for 10:00 am and the men's race to follow at 11:00 am.