Canyons Men, Hartnell's Leon Win Mt. SAC Invite
It was a clash of the titans in the men's community college four mile race Friday at the Mt. SAC Invitational in Walnut, CA. In their initial match-up back in September, Hartnell College's Diego Leon bested College of the Canyons Rodrigo Ornelas by two seconds to win the state preview meet. Since then, Leon has won three of four meets while Ornelas has gone on to win the Socal Preview meet and several other invitationals. They faced each other again Friday with Leon methodically working his way up through the field before finally pulling even to Ornelas just as the pair traversed the famed Reservoir Hill. It was on the course's ominous final hill named "switchbacks" that Leon finally gained the winning advantage. Leon stopped the clock at 20:30 with a 17 second advantage over Ornelas. His time was 58 seconds faster than he ran in 2013 and also established a Hartnell College record for the Mt. SAC course by 29 seconds. Heading into the final three meets of the season, Leon will be considered the top contender for the individual state championship. As a team, the Hartnell men placed third overall besting teams who had been ranked higher than the Panthers from Saddleback College, Glendale College, and Southwestern College. The Panthers finished just 11 points behind state fourth ranked and meet host Mt. SAC. Justin Carrancho (21:36), Rene Siqueiros (21:48), Luis Vargas (22:03), Andrews Gutierrez (22:07), Javier Garcia (22:35) and Diego Avila (22:36) made up the scoring seven for the Panther.
Frosh Malena Grover made a name for herself against a very tough field comprised of predominantly of Southern California community colleges. Grover used a very aggressive first mile to position herself amongst the top women. Her time if 18:52 was good enough to keep her in thirteenth overall. She was followed closely by teammate Brandi Hobson in sixteenth (19:07) who is making a comeback after being out two weeks with achilles tendonitis. Rachel Shimabukuro (19:38), Maritza Ruelas (19:58), Nancy Rodriguez (20:03), Lizette Garcia (20:29), and Cynthia Tovar (20:31) helped the Lady Panthers to a fourth place team finish. This is the second time the Lady Panthers have traveled to Mt. SAC and recorded a fourth place team finish.
The Panthers will compete next on October 30 at the Coast Conference Championships in Belmont, CA. The men will look to win their fifth consecutive team championship with the women looking to repeat for the first time 2005 and 2006.