State bound for OCC men's, women's cross country!
SAN DIEGO -- The Orange Coast College men's and women's cross country teams have officially punched their tickets to Fresno after two strong overall performances at the Southern California Regional Finals on Friday at Mission Bay.
On the men's side, the Pirates, led by freshman standout Brian Soriano-Guzman's third-place effort, finished sixth overall with a team score of 201 points.
Soriano-Guzman battled Mt. San Antonio College's Daniel Abdala all the way to the wire for third place and earned the bronze medal with a four-mile time of 21 minutes, 18.6 seconds, trailing only the San Diego Mesa tandem of Stefen Rasmuson (20:49.2) and Isaiah Labra (21:10.1).
Two more Pirate freshmen -- Andrew Lopez and Yuki Watanabe earned top-50 spots after Lopez finished 33rd with a time of 22:13.6 and Watanabe crossed the finish line 41st overall with a time of 22:26.1.
Other top OCC times were turned in by Tyler Savely (22:56.1), Justin Dominguez (22:59.4), Adam Angel (23:28.2) and Peter Antunez (24:10.8).
On the women's side, the Pirates also qualified for the upcoming state meet after finishing 10th overall with a team score of 297. OCC's top runner on the 5k course was freshman Skyler Madrid, who finished 29th overall with a time of 21:05.1.
Other solid Coast times turned in included Kaila Gindlesperger (22:02.4), Emily Olson (22:25.5), Gabriela Delgado (22:29.8), Meagan Silves (22:52.3), Kelsey Withers (23:12.7) and Angelica Mateo (24:30.9),
Up next for the Pirates will be the California Community College Athletic Association Cross Country State Meet, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 23 at Woodward Park in Fresno.
