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Pirates capture men's, women's OEC titles!
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Sunday, October 29, 2006
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ORANGE - For OCC cross country, one team is coming together at just the right time while the other team just keeps rolling along.
Both ended up in the same spot -- atop the pack at Saturday's Orange Empire Conference, held at Irvine Park.
 For the women's team, their six-person squad continued to dominate those who dare run against them, breezing to a team total of 18 points, thanks to five top-seven finishes.
On the men's side, the Pirates used inspired times from several runners to edge Riverside (48 points) for the top spot with 44 points.
"Both teams ran very, very well today," OCC head coach Marco Ochoa said. "It was a great overall team performance on both sides."
For the women, OCC finished 1-2-3-5-7 in the standings, led by Elda Hernandez, who finished the 5K course with a time of 19 minutes, 29.69 seconds. Close behind were teammates Erendira Uriostegui (19:32.27) and Kelly Oelschlager (19:36.46), the only three runners in the race to finish under 20 minutes.
Kristin Glen (20:20.93), Kimberly Jennings (20:39.95) and Claire Fleming (13th, 21:37.34) round out the impressive times for the Pirates.
Riverside, who placed five runners in the top-11, placed second overall with 40 points, while Santiago Canyon (87) finished third.
 Leading the way on the men's side was Ernesto Castaneda, who completed the four-mile course with a fourth-place time of 21:12.88. Teammate Martin Bernard was close behind, finishing fifth with a 21:13.29.
Travis Foerster (eighth, 21:48.85), Alfonso Silvas (13th, 22:07.07) and Nick St. Andre (14th, 22:10.98) round out the top-five runners for OCC, but several other Pirates also posted some quality times.
Included in that mix was Nathaniel Mouzis (20th, 22:44.90), Erik Lopez (21st, 22:48.58), Erik Clark (34th, 24:01.00), Sean Connor (52nd, 25:24.67), Osbaldo Riestra (56th, 5:40.53), Alex Drum (59th, 25:59.88) and Mario Guereca (72nd, 31:45.16).
Despite a 2-3 finish from their top two runners, the Tigers could not overcome OCC's five top-14 finishes and took second overall. Saddleback (69 points) placed third.
Next up for the Pirates will be the SoCal Championships in Antelope Valley on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 9 a.m.
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