Women's Cross Country Wins First Conference Title, Both Teams Qualify for SoCal Championships

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director 

OXNARD — College of the Canyons established women's cross country program history on Friday, with the team claiming its first Western State Conference (WSC) Championship after a triumphant run on the course at Oxnard College.

COC head coach Lindie Kane had previously led the men's program to WSC championships in 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2015, with the 2014 squad also winning the 3C2A state title in addition to a 3C2A Southern California regional championship. However, the women's team had not yet achieved that feat until Friday's championship outing.

"It might take 30 years," said Kane who over the cross country and track & field programs in 1994. "But you just keep working and competing." 

Canyons (56) won its first conference title ahead of runner-up Allan Hancock College (71) and Moorpark College (94) in third place. 

The WSC championship meet was the first event in several weeks that Canyons featured its full women's squad with freshman Giselle Ruiz and sophomore Kassidy Vargas both returning to action in time for the championship run.

That added presence provided a nice boost for a COC team that saw four earn All-WSC honors with six runners finishing within the top-30.

Freshman Victoria Jamison was the top performer once again, clocking a time of 18:19.3 on the 5K course to finish fourth overall. That pace was roughly 11 seconds behind individual race winner Madeline Fletcher (18:08.5) of Cuesta College. 

Following Jamison was the trio of freshman Alyssa Arriaga (10th/19:47.5), sophomore Katelyn Catu (11th/19:50.8) and frosh Lilianna Moreira (13th/19:52.8) who all broke the 20-minute barrier and were essential in securing the conference crown for the Cougars.

Jamison, Arriaga, Catu and Moreira were all honored during the post-race ceremony as All-WSC selections.

Ruiz, who had not run competitively since Sept. 13, finished the course in 20:58.5 to place 27th in the field 72 runners. She represented the final scoring runner for Canyons.  

Kassidy Vargas (29th/21:06.6) followed closely behind Ruiz in 29th place. Emily Fairbanks (41st/21:47.9) and Emily Valdez (54th/23:36.2) also competed for Canyons on what was an historic day for the Cougars. 

Canyons will next run at the 3C2A Southern California Championships on Friday, Nov. 8 at Chaffey College, with an eye toward qualifying for the 3C2A State Championship meet on Nov. 23.

Men's Team Finishes Sixth

COC's men's team finished the WSC Championship meet in sixth place, just a handful of points behind the fourth-place finishers.

Bakersfield College (44) won the conference championship ahead of Moorpark (69) and Glendale College (86) in the first three spots. Santa Monica College (156) and Ventura College (156) were next followed by Canyons (162) in sixth. 

Sophomore Nathaniel Wilkinson earned All-WSC honors by finishing 12th on the four-mile course with a time of 21:10.09.

Freshman Nathan Parras ran the course in 21:49.8 to finish 25th in the field of 110 runners representing 12 schools. Musa Rahman was just a few steps off that pace with his time of 21:55.6, good for 27th place.

Sophomore Jack Eaton (44th/22:51.4) and freshman Montell Frye (82nd/25:30) rounded out the top-five runners for Canyons.

Diego Sanchez (96th/28:11.4) and Raul Rosas (102nd/29:10.1) had their scores dropped from the final tally.

The Cougars have also qualified to compete at the 3C2A Southern California Preview on Nov. 8 

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 Mari Kneisel/COC Sports Information