OCC women win Coast Classic; Pirate men finish fourth
COSTA MESA -- On a day where DRIVING 3-4 miles would prove tiring, the Orange Coast College men's and women's cross country took to the sweltering Fairview Park Course for the 2012 Coast Classic/SoCal Preview Meet on Saturday and survived the day with impressive times.
With race temps reaching 100 degrees, the OCC women, fresh off of last week's impressive win at the Fresno Invitational, continued to set the pace with a victorious team score of 54 points in the 27-team field. Glendale, led by meet winner Grace Graham-Zamudio (18 minutes, 38.48 seconds), finished second overall with 74 points, while Moorpark took third with 93 points.
The Pirates posted three top-10 performances, led by freshman Leanne Allen, who placed fourth in the 5K race with a time of 19:17.9. Teammate Raeanna Cortez placed seventh overall with a 19:27.79, while Karen Silvas placed 10th at 19:35.27.
Other top times for the Pirates' top-seven included Carmille Garcia (20th, 19:51.28), Nisreen Rizk (21st, 19:54.22), Maria Matias (29th, 20:20.43) and Allison Nagel (20:40.13).
On the men's side, A dominating performance from American River College gave the Beavers the team win with a score of 24. Cerritos took second with 72 points and finished ahead of Glendale (96) and OCC (116).
Coast earned a pair of top-10 performances from Austin Little and Barron Maizland. Little finished the four-mile course in sixth place with a time of 21:05.71, while Maizland placed eighth overall with a 21:07.98.
Other top times from the OCC seven included Weston Hall (29th, 21:44.2), Jay Bonthius (37th, 22:00.47), Michael Guzman (41st, 22:05.05), Jace Hinesly (53rd, 22:23.88) and Luis Morales (61st, 22:38.46).
Cerritos College's Munir Kahssay won the race with a time of 20:38.05, while an American River foursome of Luis Luna, Steven White, Jacob Huston and Matt Airola, completed the top-5.
OCC will look for continued success (and hopefully cooler weather) on Friday at the Golden West Invitational, held at Huntington Beach's Central Park, beginning at 9 a.m.
