San Luis Obispo, CA (Cross Country) -- For the second straight year, the Citrus College Women’s Cross Country team has qualified for the Southern California Championships, thanks to their performance at the Western State Conference Championships.
After finishing in 8th place last year at the conference finals, the Lady Owls moved up two spots this season finishing 6th out of the 13 participating teams. Overall the Lady Owls would finish with a team time of 1:50.03. The team’s average time was 22:00, and Citrus finished just 8 seconds off of 2nd place Cuesta College’s total team time.
Vanessa Esquivel would lead the pack of Lady Owls crossing the finish line in Fairbanks Park. Esquivel improved last year’s WSC Finals time by 31 seconds and finished in 13th place individually. Freshman Melissa Granados would be just behind her finishing in 17th place with a time of 20:31.70, and rounding out Citrus’ top three finishers was Cynthia Acedo who came across the line in 33rd place with a time of 21:37.60.
After finishing in 82nd place last year, sophomore Daniel Mendoza finished in 59th place in the 2009 finals. Mendoza was Citrus’ best male runner this year, and continued that trend at the championships with a time of 24:22. Mendoza was Citrus’ lone bright spot, as the Fighting Owls finished 13th out of the 13 competing teams. Mendoza will possibly be Citrus’ lone male representative at the SoCal Finals, but will have to wait until this weekend to find out.
While Mendoza waits to find out, the women know they are in, and will begin preparing for the Southern California Championships hosted by Mt. San Antonio College. The race is set for a 10:00 AM start on Saturday November 7th at the Mt. SAC race course.
Results