By John M. Sherrard

(Walnut, CA) For the fifth consecutive year, the Mt. SAC Men's Cross Country Team captured the South Coast Conference (SCC) Championship Title.  The event held on Friday, October 27th at the Mt. SAC Cross Country, marked the Mounties 19th SCC Title.

Mt. SAC finished with 23 points, followed by L.A. Harbor (56) in second and El Camino (77) in third.

Leading the pack and claiming the SCC individual title was Mt. SAC's Manuel Fernandez. The sophomore, who has captured the past three races, finished with a time of 20:26, his best time of the season to date.

Fernandez, who improved on his third-place conference finish in 2016, ran the 4th fastest time ever on the Mt. SAC 4-mile course.

"This is kind of like one of those bucket list things that we have to cross off and of course there are other things that we have to achieve as a team," said Fernandez to RunnerSpace.com after the race.

"I felt pretty motivated and I think my teammates did too to get out there and go after it (championship)," said Fernandez of running on their home course. "We just decided to go out there as a team and get out there and try to set the course record."

Coming in second, nine seconds behind Fernandez, was sophomore Anthony Alfaro with a time of 20:35.

"It's awesome knowing that we're finally into the post season and we're still doing the same thing we've been doing all year," Alfaro said. "I know our work ethic and the time that we've put in this whole season is going to pay off once we race those final two races."

Five additional Mounties placed in the top 11 including Luis Huerta (5th at 21:31), Abraham Gonzalez (7th at 21:47), Misael Millan (8th at 21:47), Cesar Bermudez (10th at 21:47) and Ralph Mendoza (11th at 21:48).

The 5-man team (time) gap for the Mounties was a mere 1:21.

Mt. SAC will run next in the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Regional Championships which will be held at Central Park (Santa Clarita, CA) on Friday, at 11:00 am. The Mounties finished third last season and won a championship in 2015.

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

Follow Mt. SAC Athletics on twitter @MtSAC_athletics or Facebook @Mountie.Athletics

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