Pirates finish third overall at CCCAA championship meet
FRESNO -- The Orange Coast College men's cross country team capped off a stellar 2014 season by finishing third overall at the California Community College Athletic Association's State Meet, held at Fresno's Woodward Park, on Saturday.
With a pair of sophomore-led, top-10 performances, the Pirates finished with 157 points overall, trailing only state-champion College of the Canyons (79) and American River (86).
It is the seventh straight top-five team finish for the Pirates, dating back to 2007.
Leading the way for OCC was the sophomore combination of Lucio Ramirez and Brandon Ferguson. Fresh off of his Orange Empire Conference and Southern California Regional titles, Ramirez took on the state's best and battled Hartnell's Diego Leon, Cuesta's Connor Fisher and Santa Barbara's Alex Heuchert throughout the entire four-mile course.
Finally, Leon edged out Ramirez and the rest of the field to win the individual title with a time of 20 minutes, 9.4 seconds. Ramirez was just three seconds behind Leon and finished second with a time of 20:12.6, while Fisher (20:16.5) took third and Heuchert (20:19.3) placed fourth.
Ferguson, a steady runner for the Pirates throughout his two-year career, cracked the top-10 and finished ninth with a time of 20:27.7.
The future looks bright for the Pirates as a pair of freshmen -- Eamon Smythe and Efrain Vargas -- earned points for Coast by finishing in the top-five team results. Smythe finished 39th overall with a time of 21:07.6, while Vargas placed 56th with a time of 21:25.2.
Other top times for the Pirates included Jorge Jeronimo (21:34.6), Jesus Valdez (21:47.4) and Ryan Ogan (22:00).
