The Ventura College women's cross country team performed four spots ahead of their pre-race ranking, coming in a strong second place at the Southern California Preview meet at San Diego's Mission Bay Park on Friday. Brieanna Tafoya claimed second place in the race out of 209 runners while Olivia Burton was close on her heels in third. The Pirate men placed 25th of 29 competing teams.
The Pirate women amassed 100 team points, good for the runner-up finish behind Western State Conference foe Glendale, who had five runners finish in the top 14 places, scoring 38 total points. Riverside was third with 127 points, followed by Mt. San Antonio (173) and Los Angeles Harbor (185).
Tafoya covered the 5k course in 19:25, six seconds ahead of Burton. Alisann Tolosa crossed the tape in 20:30 for 13th place overall. Other VC runners included Gisele Ortega (41st, 21:54, 38 points), Diana Saldana (47th, 21:58, 44 points), Michelle Meugniot (68th, 22:45, 60 points), Alexandra Sanchez (125th, 24:23, 102 points), Christina Cortes (129th, 24:38) and Michelle Hamm (156th, 26:17).
Michael Sanchez led the VC men in 124th place, running the 4-mile course in 25:08 to earn 116 team points. Other Pirate finishers included Jake Turville (135th, 124 points), Luis Duran (145th, 133 points), Gabriel Olivares (155th, 26:23, 141 points), Pierson Reynolds (187th, 28:50, 161 points) and Noah Perez (194th, 29:36, 166 points).
The Pirate harriers will take a week off before heading to the Bakersfield Invitational on Friday Sept. 27.