VC sophomore Sophia Godina claimed the individual Western State Conference title for the Pirate women Friday as she and her teammates placed fourth overall at the conference championships in Woodland Hills Friday. The Pirate men came in third as a team, led by Erick Tienda's 12th place finish as the two teams had their best combined team placing since the 2017 season. Both squads easily qualified for the Southern California Regional Championships on Nov. 3 in Long Beach.
Godina became Ventura's first individual conference champion since 1994 by covering the 5k course in 18:10, nearly 26 seconds ahead of her nearest competition. Brianna Torres also earned All-WSC honors coming in fourth with a mark of 19:09. Addy Cornell was third for the Pirates at 22:24, good for 26th place and 22 team points, followed by Yesenia Molina (23:20, 32nd, 28 points) and Julianne Caro (28:26, 57th, 49 points). A total of 66 runners from 13 WSC schools competed in the race.
Ventura totaled 104 team points, finishing seven behind Oxnard. Glendale claimed the WSC title with 50 points followed by Hancock with 82. Canyons and Moorpark finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Tienda ran the men's 4-mile course in 23:10 to earn All-WSC honors in 12th place. Adrian Valdez also was named all-WSC in 15th, six seconds later. Diego Quezada was 21st for 20 team points with a time of 24:01 and Colin Crisostomo crossed the finish line in 24:29, earning 25 points in 26th place. Kevin Ramirez was the fifth Pirate runner in 34th place for 32 points, posting a time of 25:12. Carlos Oregel (25:23, 39th) and Alexzander Gomez (25:44, 43rd) rounded out the VC competitors in the 100-runner field.
The Pirates earned 104 team points to claim third place. Bakersfield had five runners in the top-7 finishers to win the team crown with 21 points and Glendale was second with 76. Canyons (116) and Moorpark (143) rounded out the top-5.
The combined finish of VC's men's and women's teams are the best since 2017 when the men were second and the women placed third. Before that, one would have to go back 14 years to 2009 when the teams produced the same outcome in the WSC Championships.
Both Pirate teams easily qualified for the Southern California Regional Championships. Those races will be held Friday Nov.3 at El Dorado park in Long Beach.