Pirate women place second at OEC Championships
IRVINE -- The Orange Coast College women's cross country team earned a trip to next week's Regional Meet after a solid, second-place team performance at the 2015 Orange Empire Conference Meet, held on Friday at Mason Park.
The Pirates, who had three runners finish in the top-10 in scoring, earned the runner-up spot with a team score of 61 points, topped only by OEC champion Riverside (32). Saddleback (76) finished third, while Santa Ana (103) placed fourth. All four teams will advance to next week's Southern California Regional Meet, set for Friday at Mission Bay Park in San Diego, beginning at 10 a.m.
OCC freshman Alyssa Allen was the pace-setter for the Pirates and finished third with a 5K time of 19 minutes, 54.96 seconds. She was one of just four runners to break the 20-minute mark and was topped only by OEC champion Toni Lopez of Santa Ana (19:16.01) and Riverside's Brianna Jacklin (19:23.88).
Two other Coast runners cracked the top-10, as sophomore Janessa Allen placed eighth with a time of 20:14.5 and Bethani Heising finished ninth with a 20:19.29.
Other point earners for OCC included freshman Karen Cruz (21:10.54) and freshman Rebecca Ross (21:25.62). Other strong times for the Pirates were turned in by sophomore Daisy Vazquez (21:48.05), freshman Jennifer Romero (22:29.33), freshman Tarah Buckels (24:27.8) and Kirsten McCracken (24:36.83).
