COC Men Finish In Fourth At Fresno Invite; Women in Sixth

FRESNO, Calif . - The College of the Canyons cross country teams continued its early season success on Saturday afternoon at the Fresno Invitational at Woodward Park when the men's team finished in fourth place, while the women came in sixth place. The Cougars had two men finish in the top-15 and the women had  one woman in the top-25. 

The men tallied 130 points in the 17-team race. American River won the team title with 40 points, followed by Mt. SAC with 68 and local nemesis Glendale College with 104 points.

Rodrigo Ornelas, who ran a 20:46.54 in the 6k race, led a duo of men who finished in the top-15. Robert Pion crossed the finish line in 13th place in a time of 21:26.88. Alex Johnson came in under 22 minutes in a time of 21:37.15, good for 22nd place and sophomore Chase Wheeler turned in a 44th-place showing in 22:14.04. Freshmen Lyvan Friend (22:22.69), Anthony Janaslani (22:26.44) and Joel Estrada (22:40.13) rounded out the COC scoring.

On the women's side, COC notched 218 points at the 18-team race. Orange Coast won the invite with 36 points, followed by Mt. SAC (105 points), Glendale (113 points), Moorpark (149 points) and American River (156 ponts) that cam in fifth place above College of the Canyons.

Freshman Dominique Dowell led the ladies again, completing the 5K race in 20:15.31 for a 24th-place finish. Freshmen Diana Barrera and Yesenia Razo came in at the 20-minute mark with a time of 20:35.58 and 20:44.55 for 34th and 40th place, respectively. Freshman Nicole Casillas turned in a 56th-place performance with a time of 21:11.77, freshman Amanda Meredith was 73rd in 21:35.78 and sophomore Kasey Cass came in a few seconds later in 21:43.98, good for 78th place. Freshman Stephanie Marin rounded out the scoring with a 91st-place finish in a time of 22:29.72. 

COC will host the Southern California Preview on Friday, Sept. 13 at 9:30 a.m. at Central Park.