Canyons Cross Country Ready to Run in 2024
By Mari Kneisel/COC Sports Information
College of the Canyons cross country is hitting the course for the 2024 season on Friday, Aug. 30 at the San Diego Cross Country Kickoff.
Canyons will see six returning Cougars across both the men's and women's programs, while welcoming nine new recruits to head coach Lindie Kane's squads.
On the women's side it will be Katelyn Catu, who earned All-Western State Conference (WSC) Second-Team honors as a freshman, returning alongside fellow sophomores Emily Valdez and Emily Fairbanks. Valdez and Fairbanks were both named All-WSC Honorable Mention selections for Canyons a year ago.
All three student-athletes helped COC to a fourth-place result finish in the conference standings and represented Canyons at the 2023 State Championships.
On the men's side, Canyons returns Jack Eaton, Nathaniel Wilkinson and Diego Sanchez after each turned in successful 2023 campaigns.
Last year, Eaton and Wilkinson both received All-WSC, Second Team accolades for COC, before running at the State Championship meet as freshmen. COC's men's team finished fifth in the WSC standings a year ago.
The 2023 season represented the first time since 2019 that both the men's and women's teams qualified to compete at the state championships.
The Cougars are scheduled to run in seven events in 2024 with their eyes on the path to another appearance at the state meet. The program's group of accomplished returners is hoping to do so with the help of a new class of freshman.
Alyssa Arriaga (Canyon High School), Kassidy Vargas (Castaic High School), Liliana Moreira (Granada Hills High School), Victoria Jamison (Saugus High School) and Giselle Ruiz (Saugus High School) will make their first appearances on the starting line during the Cougars' season opener on Aug. 30.
Joining the men's program as freshmen are Nathan Parras (Canyon High School), Musa Rahman (Golden Valley High School), Raul Rosas (Rosemont High School) and Chris An (Saugus High School) who are also eager to start their Cougar careers.
Following Friday's run at the San Diego Cross Country kickoff the Cougars will head north for the 'Crush Invitational' on Sept. 6 at Woodward Park in Fresno, site of the annual state championship meet.
The following week, COC is set to run at the 3C2A SoCal Preview meet hosted by Chaffey College on Friday, Sept. 13.
The WSC Preview meet is slated for Friday, Oct. 4 at Santa Monica College, with the WSC Championships following a few weeks later on Friday, Oct. 25 at Oxnard College.
From there the Cougars will look to advance to the 3C2A SoCal Championships on Nov. 8, and then potentially on to the State Championships, back in Fresno, on Nov. 23.
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.
—Photo by Robert Hanashiro/COC Sports Information