Pirates finish third at OEC Championships
HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The Orange Coast College men's cross country team will continue its 2022 season following a solid performance at the Orange Empire Conference Cross Country Championships, hosted by Golden West College, on Friday at Central Park.
Led by a top-5 result from OCC standout Hector Espana, the Pirates finished with a team-score of 88 points, ahead of Santa Ana (115), Fullerton (128), Santiago Canyon (174) and Golden West (187). Riverside won the OEC title (25 points), while Saddleback (53) finished second.
Espana took on the best the OEC had to offer and conquered the four-mile course with a four-place time of 20 minutes, 46.44 seconds. It was a fight to the finish for fourth place between Espana, Santa Ana's Aldo Trujillo (20:46.9) and Riverside's Raen Reyes (20:47.44), with Espana edging them out at the tape.
Another Pirate who cracked the top-20 was August Garcia, who finished 15th overall with a time of 21:22.63. Top-30 finishes went to OCC's Carlos Ramos (22nd, 21:50.95) and Raoul Kelly (28th, 22:14.34).
Other top Pirate times were turned in by Cole Ridenour (22:31.04), Damian Martinez (22:35.89), Connor O'Brien (22:55.42), Zack Lang (23:09.95), Eliliano Gonzalez (24:05.09) and Miguel Zarco (24:06.7).
With the top-3 team result, the Pirates have earned a spot at the 2022 Southern California Regional Championships, which will take place at the Kern County Soccer Park in Bakersfield on Friday, beginning at 10 a.m.
