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Cross Country: Pirate women win Coast Classic; men take third
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Saturday, September 20, 2008
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COSTA MESA -- In the biggest field in event history, the Orange Coast College women's track and field squad set the pace in the 2008 Coast Cross Country Classic, topping the 19-team field with 49 points. The Pirate men placed third overall in their 25-team event with 106 points, trailing only San Bernardino Valley (44 points) and Mt. San Antonio (100).
 On the women's side, Cassie Mitchell was the Pirates' top runner, placing second overall on the 5K course with a time of 19 minutes, 27.81 seconds. Mt. SAC's Christine Cortez won the race in 18:55.26. Defending state champion Crystal Reed did not compete for Coast.
All of the top-five runners for the Pirates cracked the top-20, with Margaret McDuffee (seventh, 20:00.89), Kimone Hewitt (11th, 20:12.68), Janina Emery (15th, 20:24.97), Alexandra DeAvila (16th, 20:25.71) and Andrea Guerra (17th, 20:27.6) rounding out the scoring.
Other OCC times were turned in by Kanene Sierra (20:40.16), Meghan Sanchez (20:49.17), Heather Cannioto (21:07.58), Hillary LaBelle (21:26.66), Jane Kerner (21:27.49), Sonya Ercout (21:32.34), Heather Thomas (22:00.78), Mishka Hulka (22:01.79), Kimberly Valencia (22:08.32), Teri Mitchell (22:12.1), Stephanie Eldridge (22:50.27), Senayt Asrat (22:51.0), Elena Lopez (23:46.98) and Kristi Bergdahl (25:45.9).
On the men's side, three OCC runners cracked the top-20 in a field that topped over 215 athletes. Russell Westphal placed sixth with a time of 20:24.73, while teammates Sergio Olivarrias (11th, 20:43.41) and Luis Gallardo (18th, 21:04.18) were close behind.
Luis Gallardo (18th, 21:04.18) and Mason Miller (33rd, 21:24.34) rounded out the Pirates' scoring, while other solid Coast times were posted by Alexis Silvas (21:43.83, Bryan Vaughn (21:57.16), James Ko (22:02.53), Aldo Gordian (22:05.93), Garrett Fuerte (22:18.95), Alex Torres (22:30.01), Alfonso Silvas (22:40.55), Brian Tran (23:01.95), Santiago Gudino (24:20.79) and Anthony Amaya (24:22.42).
In addition to being the Coast Cross Country Classic, Saturday's event also doubled as the Orange Empire Conference Preview Meet. When the results were trimmed to just the other OEC schools, OCC's women dominated the event with five top-seven finishes and 23 points (Riverside was second with 70) and OCC's men placed first with 37 points (Riverside -- 46).
The Pirates return to action on Saturday at the UC Riverside Invitational, beginning at 9 a.m.
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