Running in the Western State Conference Championships, the VC men finished a strong second place and the Pirate women came in third overall in the meet held at Bakersfield College. Jacob Hernandez ran in the No. 1 slot for the Pirate men for the first time all season, placing fourth overall while Marissa Gonzales led the VC women in fifth place.
The Pirate men placed second at the championships with 86 team points. Glendale took the top spot with 42 points and Santa Monica was third with 112. Other team finishers included Cuesta (115), Bakersfield (124), Oxnard (146), Canyons (164), Santa Barbara (211), Antelope Valley (228), Victor Valley (230), and West LA (234). VC last won the conference title in 2004, and produced runner-up finishes in 2005 and 2009, and now in 2017.
Hernandez came in fourth overall out of 101 sinishers, shearing a huge 59 seconds from his race at Bakersfield back on September 22. His time of 20:35 for the 4-mile course ranks as the fastest ever run by a Pirate on the Bakersfield College course. Adan Cruz (10th, 21:12, 9 pts.), Alex Ambriz (13th, 21:15, 12), Evan Pederson (26th, 21:36, 25), Juan Martinez (38th, 22:06, 36), Ernie Nombrano (39th, 22:12, 37), Adrian Orozco (44th, 22:33, 39), Dan Thow (55th, 23:07), Luis Barriga (56th, 23:08), Oscar Rodriguez (75th, 24:23), John Chavez (76th, 24:27), and Axel Mora (95th, 27:04) rounded out the Pirate finishers.
"Even though we still have four weeks remaining in our season, I couldn't help but be proud of the way the young men competed today," commented head coach Tony Veney. "Nine of the 12 men ran PR's on the course and we shaved four minutes from our team time from a month ago. But as I have said from the beginning, the state meet is our main goal. Although this is nice for the team, we still have so much more ahead of us."
The Ventura College women placed third overall with 83 points, behind Glendale who won the meet with 43 points and Canyons with 70. Other teams included Oxnard (147), Bakersfield (170), Moorpark (174), Santa Monica (203), Citrus (213), LA Mission (231), Hancock (244), Cuesta (255), and West LA (261). VC has now finished in third five times ( 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2017) since its last conference title in 2003, in addition to two runner up finishes (2004, 2007).
As she has all season, Gonzales paced the VC women, covering the 5k course in 18:46, good for fifth place overall out of 89 finishers. Macy Schmidt came in 10th in 19:31, followed by Fabiola Flores Gomez (12th, 19:42), Tatiana Garcia (28th, 20:37, 25 points), Ashley Valdavinos (34th, 20:57, 31), Cecilia Cano (38th, 21:17, 34), Allison Hermann (48th, 22:39, 44) and Kiara Estrada (71st, 24:07).
The teams will take a well-deserved week off before returning to action on Friday Nov. 3 at the Southern California regional Championships in Santa Clarita. The women's 5k is scheduled for 10:00 am and the men's 4-mile race is set for 11:00 am at Central Park.