Early season meets in San Diego and Fresno highlight weekend's cross country action
San Diego City and Cuyamaca welcome competitors with tough and challenging course
LA MESA - The collegiate cross country season kicked off in San Diego on Friday with the 3rd Annual San Diego XC Kickoff at Harry Griffen Park, co-hosted by San Diego City College and Cuyamaca College. The loop course covers varied terrain of thick, nubby grass, flat packed dirt, and a soft trail that makes for a true cross-country experience. Runners start and finish on a large grass field and set out approximately 200 meters before entering the over one-mile loop. Seven teams toed the line Friday morning over the 2.1-mile (women) and 5k (men) courses.
The women’s race was won in a course record time of 13:53 by freshman Payton Love from Saddleback College. Love won the race by nearly 30 seconds over freshman Daycia Fielden of Cuyamaca College. Love’s first-place finish also helped Saddleback secure the team victory with a score of 37 points over Cuyamaca's 43 points. Saddleback also had a strong showing by freshman Christina Bernik, who placed third overall in 14:24. Rounding out the top three scoring teams was San Diego City with 55 points.
The men’s race was a closer affair with the result not decided until the final 100 meters with Eric Dillon (16:46) of Saddleback passing Valencio Coco (16:49) from Southwestern College for narrow three-second win. The first four runners finished within 10 seconds of each other as they ran close throughout the race. The team title went to Cuyamaca with 30 points while Saddleback's 41 points earned it second. Rounding out the top three teams was Los Angeles Mission with 76 points.
(Marcos Anzures, San Diego City College Athletics)
Woodward Park gives preview of 3C2A State Championship Course to large field
FRESNO - Cross country is back in action, and this 2023 season is set to be a great one. On Friday, September 1, more than 260 athletes from 17 schools toed the line at Woodward Park for the Fresno Invitational. Teams experienced a preview of the 5k and 4-mile courses that the women and men will compete on for the State Championships in November.
The women led off the meet with a sensible first mile pace of about six minutes. During the second mile, Hartnell’s Andrea Villegas and San Diego Mesa’s Alexis Noble separated themselves as the pace quickened up and down the hills. On the third mile, Villegas, coming off a second-place finish at the CCCAA State Track & Field 10k championships, used her strength to power away from the freshman Noble. The Hartnell Panther finished with a time of 18:36 - a time that would have placed sixth at the state championships last year. She will be one to watch come November.
Although Noble didn’t capture the individual win, her teammates at San Diego Mesa finished close behind with all of their top seven runners placing among the top 15 overall. San Diego Mesa finished with 38 points and looked poised to make a run for the state championship title after finishing second last year. The Clovis Community College Crush - who placed fourth last season, finished second with 90 points. Hartnell was right on their hooves with 91 points to place third.
In the men’s race, San Joaquin Delta freshman Daniel Gonzales got out to an early lead as he looked to build off his time of 20:09 in his 4-mile season-opener win at the Pat Ryan Invite last week. A group of 10 to 12 runners stayed behind and Gonzales was eventually caught by Jydin Schmid of San Diego Mesa. Schmid was 24th at last year’s state meet, but has made great progress since then, including running 3:52 in the 1500m this past spring. His finishing time of 20:18 was the fastest time by a community college athlete at the Fresno Invitational since results were electronically recorded in 2011.
Behind Schmid, Gonzales finished second in 20:28 and Mateo Delgadillo of American River finished third in 20:38. The San Diego Mesa Olympians also took home the men’s team title with an impressive 27 points, placing five runners among the top five finishers overall. Their average team time of 20:51 is the second-fastest at the Fresno Invite since 2011. Only the 2017 Mt. Sac team ran faster (20:49 team average) and they went on to win the 3C2A title.
San Bernardino Valley finished in second place and will be an upcoming team to watch this season. Last year, its was 19th at the state championships with a team average of 22:41 on this same course. On Friday, they posted a team average of 21:42 and defeated Bakersfield (3rd place) who was fifth at last year’s state meet.
Teams will continue training and competing in hopes of qualifying for the 3C2A State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on November 18.
(CJ Albertson, Clovis Community College)