By John M. Sherrard
(Walnut, CA) Led by a third, fourth and fifth place individual finish, the Mt. SAC Women's Cross Country Team scored 31 points to tie L.A. Harbor for the South Coast Conference (SCC) Championship Title, last Friday October 27, on the Mt. SAC Cross Country Course.
Last season the Mounties captured the title outright L.A. Harbor, also capturing SCC Championship Titles in 2013 and 2014, which included a state title.
Finishing in the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively were Olivia Valderrama (19:02), Maria Castello (19:04) and Rebecca Ruiz (19:19).
"For this week we worked really hard and didn't lower our mileage at all," said Castello to RunnerSpace.com after the race. "We had a lot of workouts in the last two weeks and didn't let down in our training. It showed today as we were a little heavy."
"We still managed to tie. That just shows that we have a lot more next week and that second week in November (CCCAA State Championships) we'll still be there."
Valderrama improved her course (3-mile) time from last week at the Mt. SAC Invite by four seconds (19:06).
"Hopefully next week at So California Regionals we're going to come through it and do well," Valderrama added.
In the field of 63 runners and 8 colleges, five of the top 10 spots went to the Mounties. The Mounties ran a (5-person) team time of 1:37 with a mere 50 second team gap between them.
The last two scoring positions went to Hannah Batchelor (9th), 19:44 and Teresa Castillo (10th), 19:53. One second behind Castillo in 11th position was Montserrath Celis with a time of 19:54.
The Mt. SAC women will compete this Friday November 3rd in the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Regionals to be held in Santa Clarita.
The Mounties finished third last season and last won a So Cal Championship in 2013.
To view the complete results from the 2017 South Coast Conference Championships, please CLICK HERE
(https://www.directathletics.com/results/xc/13231.html#94996).
Follow Mt. SAC Cross Country on twitter @MtSAC_XC
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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630.