For the first time since 2017, both the men's and women's cross country teams have qualified for the CCCAA State Championships. The Pirate men finished 10th on Friday and the women were 12th at the Southern California Championships in Fountain Valley, sending both teams to Fresno in two weeks. Stina Johansson came in second overall for the women while Isaiah Slagboom led the men, finishing in 24th place overall.
Slagboom covered the 4-mile course in 20:28 to come in 24th overall out of 172 competitors. Meanwhile, Joshua Weinerth came in 46th (21:16, 45 points) and Alex Canales crossed the finish line in 63rd (21:45, 59 points). Ramiro Mateos and Matthew Siroky each had a bad fall early in the race due to an obstacle on the course, but came back strong to finish in 71st (67 points) and 106th, respectively (21:59; 22:51). Sahit Jimenez (78th, 22:12, 74 points) and Noah Castro (130th, 23:57) also ran well for the Pirates.
VC scored 269 points to complete just their second Top-10 finish since 2005. They came in behind Cuyamaca (252) and ahead of San Bernardino Valley (291). San Diego Mesa claimed the regional title with 44 points followed by Mt. San Antonio (57) and Riverside (62).
Johansson repeated her runner-up finish from the Western State Conference Championships in 18:03 over the 5k course, but cut her deficit aginst the first place runner from 22 seconds to eight seconds over the last two weeks. With two weeks to go until the state championships, she has an excellent shot a competing for the individual state title.
Alexandra Sanchez came in 29th out of 125 runners in 20:01 (26 points) while Brenda Garcia was 67th (21:27, 59 points). Leslie Cervantes (117th, 25:49, 100 points) and Talia Steve (119th, 26:18, 102 points) completed the Pirates' roster competing Saturday.
The Pirates scored 289 points to tie with Oxnard, but the Condors won the tiebreaker to finish 11th. San Diego City (303 points) came in directly behind Ventura. Mt. San Antonio scored 87 points to win the meet while Riverside (122 points) and Glendale (132 points) rounded out the Top-3.
The VC women will be competing in their ninth straight CCCAA State Championship as a team.
The final meet of the season will take place on Friday nov. 19 at Woodward Park in Fresno.