Mt. SAC Men's Cross Country Captures Second Consecutive SoCal Championship

Savador Capetillo capturing the individual 209Southern California Championship Title.  
(Photo Credit:  Phil Thurman)
Savador Capetillo capturing the individual 2018 Southern California Championship Title. (Photo Credit: Phil Thurman)

(Norwalk, CA) For the third time, in the last four years, the Mt. SAC Men's Cross Country Team captured the CCCAA Southern California Regional Cross Country Championships on Friday (11/03/18) at Don Knabe Park in Norwalk (CA).  This time, the Mounties did it with a dominating performance scoring 59 points, 38 points over second place El Camino (97) and 50 points over third-place San Diego Mesa (109).  The top five Mounties placed in the top twenty and Mt. SAC was the only team to average under 20 minutes (19:50).  Twenty eight colleges and 193 runners from Southern California competed in the championships over the 4-mile course. 

Taking the individual championship was Salvador Capetillo, who is undefeated (5 for 5) in community college competition this season.  It was the second straight year that Mt. SAC took the individual championship, with Manuel Fernandez winning in 2017.

Capetillo, who finished 39 seconds ahead of second-place runner Carson Bix of El Camino College, ran an incredible time of 19:01.3.

Capetillo was aiming for a sub-19-minute mark, but just missed it as he crossed the finish line.

"I was going for it so hard," said Capetillo, who averaged 4:45.4 per mile. "My goal at the beginning of the season was to go sub 19 and when I was at the straightaway they said I was at 18:40 and I was gunning it from there.

"The excitement was running through my mind, but I came up a little short and it was bitter sweet, but it was a good performance. As a team, our goal is to win again at state."

The four other Mountie point scorers were: Jose Melchor, 8th (19:48.5); Colby Penn, 14th (20:01.2); Ralph Mendoza, 17th (20:09.2) and Luis Huerta, 19th (20:10).

Rounding out the 7-man team were: Chris Weiland, 29th (20:18.9) and Julian Serrano, 42nd (20:28.9).

The next and final stop for defending state champion Mt. SAC is the CCCAA State Championships, which will be held on Saturday, November 17th, on the famed Woodward Park Course in Fresno.

Capetillo Interview courtesy of Runnerspace.com.

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