The Pirates' men's and women's cross country teams both qualified for the CCCAA State Championships with their performances Friday in the Southern California Regionals in Bakersfield. The VC men came in eighth of 28 competing teams, easily making the cut while the women came in under the wire in 14th place of the 18 competing squads. Sophia Godina led the women with a 6th-place finish individually while Adrian Valdez finished 10th in the men's race.
This is the second year in a row, and the fourth time in six seasons that both Pirate cross country teams have qualified for the final meet of the year.
Godina (Rio MEsa) ran the 5k course in the Kern County Soccer Park in 18:27.8, her fastest time of the season, to come in sixth place, earning four team points. Brenda Garcia (Buena) came in 50th (20:31.1, 40 points), followed by Addy Cornell (Newbury Park Adventist) (80th, 21:40.0, 66 points), Christina Cortez (Oxnard) (106th, 23:18.2, 85 points), Alexa Hernandez (Oxnard) (122nd, 24:39.6, 99 points) and Leslie Cervantes (Oxnard) (127th, 26:11.5, 103 points).
Ventura scored 294 points, edging out Saddleback (319) for the final team qualifying spot. Mt. San Antonio won the team competition (56 points) followed by San Diego Mesa (82) and Bakersfield (145).
Valdez (Oxnard) covered the 4-mile trek in 20:09.1 to place in the Top-10. Joshua Weinerth (Rio Mesa) came in 18th, 11 seconds later, and Erick Tienda (Rio Mesa) was 40th (20:50.8). Ramiro Mateos (Oxnard) (55th, 21:18.4), Zach Lopez (Ventura)(115th, 23:02.7, 112 points), Bryan Guzman (Oxnard) (125th, 23:17.6, 122 points) and Jairo Gonzalez (Channel Islands)(163rd, 25:22.7, 160 points) rounded out the Pirates' field. A total of 190 runners competed in the men's race.