The Ventura College men and women's cross country teams took an important step toward realizing their state championship goals, when they competed at the Western State Conference Cross Country Championships hosted by West Los Angeles College Friday. Jordyn Vassaur and Sam Boyle led the women's and men's teams, respectively, to automatic qualification for the SoCal Regionals on Nov. 6.
As she has for the entire season, Vassaur lead the women with a 27th place finish out of 86 runners in a time of 20:18 on the Legg Lake 5k course. Shannon McDermott (33rd, 20:30), Kenna Perez (39th, 20:48), Amanda Wendt (45th, 21:06), Dhanlay Morales (51st, 21:32), and Sofia Gallardo (85th, 25:58) completed the scoring for the women. Glendale won the team title followed by Canyons, Citrus, Cuesta, Bakersfield, and Ventura. By placing in the sixth position, the Pirates punched their ticket to the November 6th Regional Finals as the WSC's top-7 teams advance.
The men's team placed an automatic qualifying seventh behind Canyons, Glendale, Cuesta, West LA, Santa Barabara, and Santa Monica. Sam Boyle placed third out of 133 finishers overall with a 21-second lifetime best for the 4-mile course. The Pirate men were supported by Christian Gil (40th, 21:14), David Torres (53rd, 21:33), Francisco Erazo (55th, 21:33), Jose Tamayo (56th, 21:34), and Frank Chavez (95th, 22:59). The third place finish for Boyle awarded him first-team All-WSC honors to go along with his 19.53 4-mile performance.
"We ran right where we were supposed to today," commented head coach, Tony Veney. "I was most pleased by 10 out of the 12 runners hitting seasonal and personal bests today. We have two weeks to prepare for the Regional Final and I believe this group of young people are almost ready to hit their peak."
The Pirates run in the SoCal Regionals on Friday Nov. 6 at Mission Bay Park in San Diego.