Cougar Cross Country Runs Strong at WSC Preview

The COC men's and women's cross country teams both turned in strong performances during the Western State Conference (WSC) Preview meet, held Oct. 3, at Kenneth Hahn Regional Park in Los Angeles.

On the men's side, Canyons easily won the team title with a score of 23, edging out second place Glendale (72 points) and third place finisher Cuesta College (81 points).

COC saw five runners finish the four-mile course ranked in the top nine, including sophomore Rodrigo Ornelas who won the race with a time of 19:32 — for his fifth individual title of the season.

Sophomore Grant Stromberg (19:50) finished second, with freshman Ethan Walker (20:03) and Ashton Garcia (20:11) finishing fifth and sixth. Sophomore Robert Pion finished ninth with a time of 20:21.

The COC women's team placed second with a score of 40 points on the 5K course, trailing only Glendale College's mark of 24 points.

The Cougars finished 4-6-9-10-11, with freshman Shalyn Mabritto (18:50) serving as the top finisher for COC. Sophomore Dominique Dowell placed sixth with a time of 18:55 while freshman Alexandra Whitman finished ninth with a time of 19:27.

Crossing the finish line just a few steps behind Whitman were tenth place finisher Amanda DeJesus (19:32) and 11th place runner Lizeth Flores (19:36).

Canyons has the week off before participating in the Mt. SAC Invite on Friday, Oct. 17.