Pirate freshman Macy Schmidt ran a season best of 18:51 on the hilly 3-mile course, good for an eighth place finish in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational Friday in Walnut , leading the Pirate women to a fourth place finish out of 17 competing teams. Alex Ambriz came in 31st overall in the men's 4-mile race as the Ventura men placed eighth of the 17 teams. It was the final tune-up for the VC cross country teams before the Western State Conference championships.
In the women's race, Schmidt was followed into the chute by Marissa Gonzales (18th, 19:27), Kenna Perez (35th, 20:23, 33 team points), Fabiola Gomez-Flores (45th, 21:03, 42), Veronica Lavin (57th, 21:27, 53), Amanda Wendt (59th, 21:30, 54), Tati Morales (80th, 22:50, 73), Julia Toscano (110th, 26:11), and Cecilia Garcia (118th, 27:59). A total of 126 runners competed. College of the Sequoias (56 points), host Mt. SAC (68), Saddleback (94), Ventura (154), and Chaffey (179) filled the top five places in the meet.
The men's team placed eighth overall with 224 points behind Mt. SAC (27), Hartnell (48), Sequoias (136), Pasadena (163), Saddleback (169), Moorpark (187), and Pima, Ariz. (191). As he has for most of the season, Ambriz ran in the Pirate top spot placing 41st (31 team points) out of 154 competitors with a time of 22:36. Nestor Rodriguez (55th, 22:53, 42), Jesse Vasquez (57th, 22:54, 44), Ernie Nombrano (65th, 23:04, 50), Christian Gil (74th, 23:31, 57), Francisco Erazo (81st, 23:37, 60), David Torres (90th, 23:50, 68), Ronaldo Flores (100th, 24:00), Jose Tamayo (103rd, 24:10) and Frank Chavez (122nd, 25:36) rounded out the men.
"Both squads ran well today," commented head coach Tony Veney, "And this was a good test against some of the top teams in the state as we gear up for for the season stretch run.
"Schmidt had a nice run finally returning to top form after her early season illness."
"The women's Top-7 ran their best today and that's what you want going into conference next week.
"The men took on a brutally hilly course but were still able to keep the Top-5 within 45 seconds which bodes well for WSC."
The WSC championships will be held Friday Oct. 21 at Oxnard College. The women's 5k is scheduled to start at 1:00 pm with the men's 4-mile race to follow at 2:00 pm.