Pirates advance to state with fifth-place finish at SoCal Championships
FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- The host Orange Coast College men's cross country team punched a ticket to Fresno on Friday with a fifth-place team finish at the 2021 CCCAA SoCal Cross Country Championships at Mile Square Park.
Going up against the best of the best in Southern California, OCC used four top-50 times to place fifth overall with 208 points, behind only San Diego Mesa (44), Mt. San Antonio (57), Riverside (62) and Glendale (194).
OCC's Kade Franco was the Pirates' top performer, conquering the four-mile course with a time of 20 minutes, 30.92 seconds, which was good enough for 18th place.
Fellow Pirate, Don Molina, was next to cross the finish line with a 41st-place time of 21:09.11, followed by Cole Ridenour (21:20.69), Hector Espana (21:29.89), Viencent Luong-Kha (21:35.19), Erik Galindo (21:56.46) and August Garcia (21:56.9). All of the OCC runners finished in the top 70 in Friday's 172-runner field.
The fifth-place team finish qualifies the Pirates for a trip to the California Community College Athletic Association State Meet, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 20 at Fresno's Woodward Park. Coast has four state team titles in men's cross country, with wins coming in 1981, 1999, 2003 and 2004.
