Olivia Burton capped off a stellar freshman season with a third place finish at the CCCAA State Cross Country Championships Saturday morning at Woodward park in Fresno. As a team, the Pirates finished in 8th place overall, the program's second straight top-10 state performance. On the men's side, Adan Cruz capped his Pirate career finishing 47th of 168 runners.
Burton covered the 5k course in 18:18, 20 seconds off the pace of the state champion from LA Harbor College. Tatiana Garcia was the second Pirate through the chute, finishing 29th overall out of 164 runners for 25 team points with a mark of 19:33. Brieanna Tafoya (35, 19:39, 30 points) was next for VC followed by Isabelle Egbert (19st, 20:55, 77 points), Cecilia Cano (95th, 21:00, 79 points), Diana Saldana (114th, 21:30, 92 points) and Maria Elizarraraz (117th, 21:35, 94 points). LA Harbor won th eteam championship with 72 points followed by runner-up Hartnell (98), Moorpark (116), Mt. San Antonio (118), Saddleback (128), Glendale (169), Riverside (213) and Ventura with 214 points.
Cruz came in 47th out of 168 runners in the men's championship race. He covered the 4-mile course in 21:26 to finish his Pirate career. Cruz, who came in sixth at last year's final race, overcame injuries this season that forced him to miss the first month of competition.
"Adan ran tough today and there was no quit in him," commented head men's coach Tony Veney. "But sometimes in our best moments, things dont turn out the way we would have liked. But despite it all he performed like an All-American."