Cougars Men's Team Places Fifth, Osorio Finishes Runner-Up

Story and photo by Mari Kneisel/COC Sports Information

HUNTINGTON BEACH — College of the Canyons cross country ran at the Golden West Invitational on Friday, competing against a field of 10 schools from across the region.

COC sophomore Milca Osorio continued her spectacular sophomore campaign by finishing runner up in the women's 5K race with a time of 19:56.5, an improvement of roughly 10 seconds from her run at the Oxnard College Invitational a week ago.

Fellow sophomore Maylani Perez clocked a time of 22:38.2 to take 15th in the field of 45.

COC Freshmen Emily Cruz made her season debut with a run of 24:07.4 to finish 22nd. 

Canyons entered just three runners in the event and thus did not factor into team scoring.

The Cougars' men's team ran to a fifth-place finish on the four-mile course with an event score of 172. Riverside City College (36) won the event, followed by Cuyamaca College (50) in second and Saddleback College (67) placing third.

COC freshman Sam Regez clocked a time of 22.06.7 to take 23rd in the field of 89 participants.  

Regez was followed by freshman Issac Wilkinson with a run of 23:15.1. Wilkinson placed 38th, improving his time by nearly two minutes from last week's race in Oxnard. 

Cesar Tobar (23:40.2) finished in 48th place for the Cougars followed by Jerome Hughes (24:04.3/53rd), Juan Jimenez Rojas (24:07.5/55th), Nathan Guzman (24:11.6/57th) and Fernando Osorio (24:50.3/64th) all placing within a minute of each other.  Guzman and Osorio had their times dropped from the final team tally.

Canyons will next run at the Southern California Preview hosted by Bakersfield College on Friday, Sept. 30, with the first race scheduled for a 10 a.m. start time.

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.