Orange Coast College

OCC women runners prevail at Coast Classic

Sunday, September 24, 2006

COSTA MESA - Under near-perfect conditions, the Orange Coast College women's cross country team nearly pulled off the perfect meet at Fairview Park.
With four OCC runners earning the first four points, the Pirates breezed past the competition at the Coast Cross Country Classic with a first-place team score of 18 points. Oxnard College finished a distant second with 57 points, while Santiago Canyon (98 points) placed third.
It was a 1-2-3 Pirate finish as Elda Hernandez won the three-mile race with a time of 19 minutes, 17.5 seconds. Also crossing the tape in under 20 minutes was teammate Erendira Uriostegui, who came in

with a time of 19:46.3. Third place went to Kelly Oelschlager with a 20:33.7.
Santa Barbara's Carly Harris broke the streak Pirate finishers, before OCC's Kristin Glen crossed the line with a 20:53.0, earning the fourth-place point total due to a lack of Santa Barbara runners.
Claire Fleming (ninth, 21:24.6) and Kimberly Jennings (10th, 21:38.3) complete the impressive effort by the Pirates in the 54-runner race.
It's the third-straight first-place team finish for the Pirates, who also won the SoCal Preview and the Cuesta Invitational prior to Saturday's Coast Classic.
On the men's side, the Pirates finished third overall with a team total of 53 points, behind San Bernardino Valley (42 points) and Oxnard (43 points).
Five OCC runners finished in the top 15 on the four-mile course, led by Martin Bernard's seventh-place time of 21:30.5. Right behind Bernard was teammate Ernesto Castaneda, who clocked in with a time of 21:30.7.
Nick St. Andre finished 11th with a time of 21:45.1, while Nathaniel Mouzis (12th, 21:45.9) and Travis Foerster (15th, 21:55.9) round out OCC's top-five.
Other OCC times include Alfonso Silvas (22:16.1), Eric Pettit (22:38.4), Sean Connor (23:07.0), Alex Drum (24:06.8), Hector Riestra (25:09.9), Erik Lopez (25:20.3) and Mario Guereca (29:22.6).
The Pirates will next travel to Riverside to compete in the Riverside Invitational on Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m.