Pirate men prevail at San Diego Invitational
SAN DIEGO -- The Orange Coast College men's cross country topped the nine-team field of competitors at Saturday's 2013 San Diego Cross Country Invitational, hosted by San Diego City College.
With four runners cracking the top 10, the Pirates posted a winning team score of 38. San Diego Mesa College finished second overall with 66 points, while Cerritos was edged out for third with 67 points.
Jose Ortiz set the pace for the Pirates on the four-mile course and finished third overall with a time of 21 minutes, 4.1 seconds. The depth and talent showed for the Pirates as all five point-scoring runners crossed the finish line within a minute of each other. Conner Garcia placed fourth with a time of 21:19.6, Luis Morales finished fifth, at 21:22.5, Lucio Ramirez took seventh at 21:24.6 and Jesus Valdez cracked the top-20 with a 19th-place time of 22:04.9.
Other solid times for Coast were turned in by Omar Cisneros (22:31.4), Ryan Ogan (22:51.9), Jorge Jeronimo (23:07.) and Mathew Sommer (23:36.5).
It is the fourth top-five performance for the Pirates in four events this year. They look for a fifth top-five on Saturday at the Vanguard Invitational, held at Fairview Park.
