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Cross Country: OCC men, women take first at SoCal Preview Meet
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Wednesday, October 08, 2008
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BAKERSFIELD -- If Saturday's Southern California Preview Meet was a true "preview", look for the Orange Coast College men's and women's cross country teams to produce several shining moments the rest of the season.
The OCC men's and women's teams came home with the team titles, with several sparkling times posted along the way.
On the women's side, the Pirates and Southwestern College each finished with 48 points, but Coast was awarded first place thanks to their higher sixth-place runner. Rounding out the top five teams include Glendale (93), Cerritos (136) and the College of the Sequoias (174).
For the individual title, OCC's Crystal Reed and Glendale College's Katie Dunn went back and forth the entire race. Dunn pulled ahead late, but Reed hung tough and it was neck and neck at the finish line. Both runners posted a time of 18 minutes, 9 seconds, but Dunn was declared the winner.
Four other Pirate runners earned top-20 points for their team, including Cassie Mitchell (fourth, 18:28), Andrea Guerra (10th, 19:17), Margaret McDuffie (13th, 19:23) and Alexandra DeAvila (19th, 19:36). All five runners finished in the top-25 among all 260 runners in the field.
Joanna Abarca proved to be the difference-maker for the Pirates as her 24th-place time of 19:39 was 60 spots ahead of Southwestern's next-best runner, giving OCC the win.
Other Coast times include Kimone Hewitt (19:40), Janina Emery (19:52), Heather Cannioto (20:07), Sonya Ercout (20:11), Jane Kerner (20:44), Mishka Hulka (20:47), Heather Thomas (21:00), Teri Mitchell (21:03), Rachel Plunkett (22:46) and Stephanie Eldridge (22:49).
On the men's side, the Pirates gained the top spot with 92 points, followed by American River (129), Mt. San Antonio (159), El Camino (171) and Sequoias (183).
Leading the way for OCC was freshman Russell Westphal, who finished fifth out of the 345 runners in the field with a time of 20:44. Two other runners cracked the top-15, including Luis Gallardo (14th, 21:03) and Pedro Saucedo (15th, 21:05). Pirate teammates Weston Hall (27th, 21:20) and Sergio Olivarrias (31st, 21:25) round out the top-five for Coast.
Other top times for the Pirates include Alexis Silvas (21:41), Kirk Hunter (21:48), Raul Torres (21:51), Mason Miller (21:51), Alfonso Silvas (22:08), Garrett Fuerte (22:11), Jesus Pinera (22:17), Aldo Gordian (22:22), Bryan Vaughn (22:28), James Ko (22:29), Alex Torres (22:32), Brian Tran (22:46) and Anthony Amaya (24:23).
OCC returns to the trails on Saturday at the Irvine Invitational, beginning at 9 a.m.
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