The Pirates' men's and women's cross country teams took a break from their regular circuit of races to compete in the Mark Calvert Invitational Saturday morning hosted by Cal State Fullerton. Competing against four-year schools, club teams, and community colleges, the Pirate men placed 12th of the 14 competing teams while the VC women were 14th of 16 teams. Adan Cruz led the men finishing in 32nd of 199 runners while Marissa Gonzales came in 43rd of 146 competitors.
The Pirate women were 14th of 16 teams in a field including Cal State Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, San Diego, San Diego State along with four other smaller four-year programs. Gonzales covered the 5k course in 19:58, good for 43rd place and 36 team points. She was followed across the finish by Tatiana Garcia (62nd, 20:48, 50 points), Macy Schmidt (78th, 21:17, 62), Cecilia Cano (130th, 24:18, 97), Allison Hermann (131st, 24:24, 98) and Kiara Estrada (14th, 25:59, 104).
"The team battled a 4:30 am departure and high levels of heat for this race," said women's head coach Melody Axtell. "They got the chance to compete against an elite level and they showed true grit."
Fresh off their impressive start to the season a week earlier at Oxnard, the Pirate men battled four-year competition, as well, including the likes of Cal State Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, and San Diego.Additionally, the course covered five miles instead of the Pirates' usual four-mile race. The distance and the hot conditions took a toll as VC finished 12th of the 14 competing teams. Just as he did in the first team outing, Cruz lead the way with a 32nd place finish (out of 199) for 29 team points in a personal best of 26:38. He was followed into the finish chute by Jacob Hernandez (79th, 27:31, 49 points), Alex Ambriz (130th, 29:02, 71), Oscar Rodriguez (151st, 29:49, 84), John Chavez (153rd, 29:54, 85), Juan Martinez (168th, 31:04, 93), Dan Thow (175th, 31:29, 94) and Adrian Orozco (182nd, 32:14).