The VC men's and women's cross country teams competed Friday at the Southern California Preview Meet at Chaffey College rescheduled from Sept. 20. The Pirate men placed 16th overall of 24 competing teams and the women did not field a complete team for the team competition. Brianna Torres once again was the top woman for Ventura, placing 10th, while Kevin Ramirez came in 60th to pace the VC men.
VC's men accumulated 425 total points to finish 16th in the team competition, one point behind Long Beach, two points short of Hancock and 22 points shy of Saddleback in 13th place.
Ramirez covered the 4-mile course in Rancho Cucamonga in 23:05 to cross the tape in 60th place among the 203 runners who finished the race. Jonah Sloan was next for VC in 73rd place with a mark of 23:25 for 71 team points. Other Pirate finishers included Carlos Oregel (99th, 24:07, 94 points), Ivan Aleman (101st, 24:10, 96 points), Nathaniel Lopez (111th, 24:33, 105 points) and Eduardo Juarez-Cuevas (140th, 25:58, 130 points).
Torres shined once again with another Top-10 finish. The sophomore ran the 5k course in 20:31 to lead the Pirates. Cali Cornell finished in 111th place for Ventura with a time of 25:54 and Yesenia Molina was 119th in 26:57. Jasmine Andres was the final Pirate to finish, coming in at the 40:17 mark in 165th place. A total of 168 runners completed the race.
The Pirates' next competition is the Western State Conference Championships at Oxnard College on Friday Oct. 25.