Orange Coast College

SIX IN A ROW! PIRATE WOMEN WIN STATE CROSS COUNTRY CROWN!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

FRESNO - Two weeks ago, the Orange Coast College women's cross country team finished fifth at the Southern California Regionals and the rest of the state hoped that this would be the year a new champion would be crowned.

Silly state.

The Pirates turned the setback into fuel for the fire on Saturday as they notched their sixth straight state crown at the California Community College State Meet at Woodward Park.
Showing that cross country is a matter of "quality" over "quantity", Coast's six-person squad went out and blitzed the field, winning with a team score of 71 points. Glendale finished a distant second with 134 points, while Bakersfield (145) placed third.
"I think that what happened to us two weeks ago was a great wake-up call for us," OCC head coach Marco Ochoa said. "We were having a bunch of success throughout the year and I think we were starting to take it for granted. (Saturday), the girls said they were a bit nervous and I told them that being nervous meant they were ready. I could tell when they got to the starting line, they were ready to go."
Elda Hernandez and Erendira Uriostegui led the way with a pair of top-10 finishes. Hernandez placed sixth overall with a time of 18 minutes, 55 seconds, while Uriostegui clocked in right behind her at 18:56.
"Both went out fast and tried to keep up with the head pack and they paid a bit of a price at the end, but they still ran great out there," Ochoa said of Hernandez and Uriostegui.

Perhaps the nicest surprise for Ochoa came from Kristin Glen (pictured left), who finished 13th overall with a personal-best time of 19:11.
"It was great to see that type of performance at the biggest event of the year," Ochoa said of Glen. "She really ran her heart out today."
Missing the SoCal Regionals two weeks ago with the flu, Kelly Oelschlager stepped up and finished 24th with a time of 19:34, while teammate Kimberly Jennings rounded out Coast's top-five with a 29th-place time of 19.39. Claire Fleming finished 81st (20:38) and will join Uriostegui, Glen and Jennings as top returners for next year.
"With the combination of these runners as well as some we're hoping to bring in next year, hopefully, the success will continue," Ochoa said. "I try and place the responsibility on our runners when they come here that there is a consistent level of success here and they want that success to continue."
On the men's side, a season that showed constant improvements wrapped up with a solid seventh-place finish (197 points).

"From where we started at the beginning of the season, this team has really continued to get better and better each week," Ochoa said. "It seemed like there were meets were a few would do well and one or two would struggle, then the next meet, others would do well and others would struggle. It was nice to see a solid team effort out there."
Ernesto Castaneda earned all-state honors with his fifth-place performance, crossing the finish line with a time of 20:31.
Alfonso Silvas (pictured right) placed 35th with a time of 21:14, while Martin Bernard (51st, 21:29), Nathaniel Mouzis (53rd, 21:30) and Nick St. Andre (91st, 22:00) round out the Pirates' top-five finishes.
Other OCC times include Travis Foerster (96th, 22:02) and Erik Lopez (142nd, 22:45).
San Bernardino Valley won the men's team title with 114 points. East L.A. finished second with 132 points and El Camino (137) placed third.