Pirates take runner-up at CCCAA State Meet!
FRESNO -- An outstanding 2013 men's cross country season came to an end for Orange Coast College and it ended strong as the Pirates finished second overall at the California Community College Athletic Association State Meet, held on Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.
After winning the Orange Empire Conference title and finishing second in the Southern California Regionals, the Pirates finished the State Meet as the top Southern California school with 93 points, topped only by NorCal's American River College team score of 72 points.
San Bernardino Valley, which won SoCals this year, finished third with 122 points, while Cerritos (170 and Southwestern (195) complete the top-five.
"The guys ran an excellent race," OCC head coach Marco Ochoa said. "You could not ask for anything else. I was extremely proud of them because they trained very hard to be able to maintain and perform beautifully as a team when it really counted."
Luis Morales, OCC's top male runner throughout the season, wrapped up his stellar Coast career, with a fifth-place time of 10 minutes, 22.14 seconds on the historic four-mile course.
Three other Pirate runners -- Jose Ortiz, Jay Bonthius and Lucio Ramirez -- each cracked the top-20. Ortiz, a freshman, finished 14th with a time of 20:45.26, Bonthius, a sophomore placed 16th with a 20:50.63 and Ramirez, a freshman clocked in at 17th with a 20:51.21.
Freshman Conner Garcia, who finished 41st with a time of 21:17.37, gives the Pirates three first-year point-producers in the State Meet, something Coast can build upon for next year.
In addition, OCC's Brandon Gerguson (52nd, 21:24.61) and Jesus Valdez (69th, 21:38.43) are also first-year runners, so if all come back to the Pirates, they could have five State Meet-qualified runners returning in 2014.
