Pirates win 10th OEC title in 13 years!
FULLERTON -- The tradition continues for the Orange Coast College men's cross country team as the Pirates captured their 10th Orange Empire Conference title in 13 years at Friday's OEC Meet, held at Craig Park.
Led by individual OEC champion Lucio Ramirez, the Pirates finished with a team score of 32 points as fall five scoring runners finished in the top-15. Saddleback finished second overall with 46 points, while Riverside took third with 67 points.
"We were pretty confident in the team because they've had some really good workouts. The level of confidence that they gained from those workouts translated to the race here today," OCC head coach Marco Ochoa said.
Ramirez, who finished 20th at last year's OEC Meet, shaved off nearly a full minute off of his 2013 time and won the conference crown with a 4-mile time of 19 minutes, 59.22 seconds.
Saddleback freshman Ulysses Orozco came in a distant second with a time of 20:22.8, while OCC's Brandon Ferguson (20:29.2) placed third.
Clost behind Ferguson was OCC teammate Eamon Smythe, who placed fifth overall with a time of 20:34.2, while Jorge Jeronimo (10th, 21:11) and Jesus Valdez (13th, 21:16.5) rounded out the point-producing runners for the Pirates.
Several other Coast runners performed well at Friday's race, including Efrain Vargas (21:26.9), Ryan Ogan (21:44.6), Daniel Vargas (21:55), Braiden Chadd (22:03.1), Yadir Perez (22:28.3), Hunter Durand (22:52.5), Michio Suganuma (23:26), Dakota Gamble (23:35.6), Cameron Smith-Ray (23:45.6) and Ryan Koenig (25:19.4).
The Pirates will now look for another top performance on Friday at the 2014 Southern California Regional Meet, held at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, beginning at 9 a.m.
