By John M. Sherrard

(Walnut, CA) After placing fourth in the first event of the season, the Mountie Men's Cross Country Team captured their sixth invitational championship in a row at the 70th running of the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational, last Saturday, October 14.

This marked their 3rd consecutive Mt. SAC Invitational Championship, dating back to 2015.

The Mounties finished ahead of 22 other colleges, scoring a near perfect score of 18, claiming the first, second and fourth through sixth positions and placing 10 of their 29 runners in the first 20 finishing positions.

Hartnell College was a distant second place with 72 points.

Perhaps the hottest runner in the state, Mountie Manuel Fernandez, won his third race in a row with a time of 20:42, amongst the field of 179 runners.

Placing second for the Mounties was sophomore Anthony Alfaro, who finished with the same time as Fernandez.  Earlier in the month at the Fresno Invitational, Alfaro finished in second, ahead of Fernandez, with a time of 20:38.

Sweeping the fourth through sixth positions was sophomore Trelani Waters (21:14), freshman Jose Melchor (21:24) and sophomore Hector Peralta (21:27).

Topping out the two runners for the Mounties in the top 10 were sophomore Ben Gonzalez (21:35) and freshman Ralph Mendoza (21:37).

The Mounties will now enter the post season competing next in the South Coast Conference Championships, to be held at Mt. SAC, on Friday, October 27th.  That will be followed by the Southern California Regional's, in Santa Clarita, on November 3rd and finally the CCCAA State Championships, in Fresno, on November 18th.

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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630.