By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

FRESNO — College of the Canyons cross country concluded its season on a high note with both teams running at the 3C2A State Championship meet, seeing the women's team finish 17th and the men's squad in 20th. 

This is the first time since 2019 that both the men's and women's teams competed at the state championship meet. 

The Lady Cougars ended 17th on the 5K course in the field of 23 competing programs.

Freshmen Katelyn Catu and Kaiya Cortinas were the top finishers for the five-runner Canyons squad. Catu was 45th at 20:00.1 with Cortinas just a few steps behind in 46th, at 20:05.5.

Emily Cruz (92nd/21:05.2), Emily Valdez (92nd/23:05.8) and Emily Fairbanks (142nd/23:28.4) all scored for Canyons.

Mt. San Antonio College (86) won the event with San Diego Mesa (119) and Clovis Community College (150) across the top three spots. 

On the men's side, COC ran to 20th place among the 24 entered programs on the four-mile course.

Sophomore Sam Regez (75th/22:00.8) was the top individual finisher for Canyons in the field of 180 runners.

Nathaniel Wilkinson (98th/22:20), Jack Eaton (99th/22:20.6), Cesar Tobar (142nd/23:06.4) and Jerome Hughes (153rd/23:26.1) rounded out the scoring runners for the Cougars.

Juan Jimenez-Rojas (172nd/24:29.3) and Fernando Osorio (175th/24:35.7) also ran for Canyons but had their scores dropped. 

Mt. San Antonio College (49) swept the meet by winning the women's state title, with San Diego Mesa (54) having to settle runner-up once again. Bakersfield College (134) was third.

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 X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.