Cougars Run Well at Mt. SAC Invitational

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

WALNUT — College of the Canyons cross country competed at the annual Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Oct. 14, with both the men's and women's teams faring well in their final race before the Western State Conference (WSC) Championships.

Canyons finished fourth on the women's side with 120 event points, just seven points behind third place El Camino College (113). Glendale College (81) finished runner-up with host Mt. SAC (53) winning the event.

COC sophomore Milca Osorio continued her spectacular season with a fourth-place time of 18:56.4 on the 5K course, which also represented a personal best.

In fact, each of the Cougars' entered runners saw PR times with Maylani Perez next to cross the finish line at 20:55.2, good for 24th place in the field of 92.

Freshman Joy Nakazawa finished close behind Perez in 26th place at a pace of 20:59.2. Emily Cruz was next in 37th with a time of 22:06.7. Trinity Winslow was the last to score for Canyons with a 49th place time of 23:11.

The Cougars' finished eighth in the men's standings but was the second WSC school behind Glendale (53), which once again finished runner-up to Mt. SAC (27).

Freshman Sam Regez was 21st overall on the four-mile course to lead Canyons with a time of 22:29.3 with freshman Jerome Hughes in 49th place at 23:52.2.

Elijah Dixon (24:22.6/64th) and Nathan Guzman (24:35.9/70th) were joined by Juan Jimenez-Rojas (24:40/73rd) in rounding out the scoring for the Cougars. 

With another strong run under its belt, Canyons will now set its focus on the WSC Championships being held Friday, Oct. 21 at Arroyo Vista Community Park in Moorpark. The women's race is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. with the men's event following at 2 p.m.

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.