Riverside men's cross country boast individual career-best in gold medal showing at Brubaker Invitational
ORANGE, Calif. - The Riverside City College men's cross country team returned to action this Friday morning by taking part in the Brubaker Invitational at Irvine Park. After a week of rest, the Tigers saw six runners land in the top-10 highlighted by a second place finish from sophomore Ricardo Cardenas (John W. North HS) en route to a first place team finish.
As a team, Riverside earned a total time of 1:48:18.19 to land them atop the podium. Their team time was nearly two seconds better than the second and third place finishers.
Cardenas paced the pack for the Tigers with an overall time of 21:20.31 which included an average mile clip of 5:20.1.
"It is great to see Ricky put up great numbers each week," said Head Coach Jim McCarron. "He has proven he is not just a track runner, but he's also a great cross country runner."
He was backed by sophomore Gabriel Sanchez (Perris HS) who landed in fourth place for a career-best finish. He earned an overall mark of 21:33.76, while freshman Deion Molina (Riverside Poly HS) trailed shortly behind in sixth place at a mark of 21:44.66.
Freshman Austin Dai (Martin Luther King HS) earned a career-best mark with a time of 21:44.71 to narrowly land in seventh place. Freshman Enrique Villa (Corona HS) and sophomore Tyler Lufkin (Yucaipa HS) round out the top finishers for the Tigers by landing in eight and ninth place, respectfully.
Other notables include freshman Kevin Hernandez (Cathedral City HS) who finished with a career-best time of 22:07.03.
The Tigers will continue action on Friday, October 20th at the Titan Invitational hosted by Cal State Fullerton. The meet is set to kick off at 5 p.m.
(Courtesy Riverside City College Athletics)