Posted: Oct 27, 2023

HORNETS RUN WELL AT THE OEC CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Hornets represented well at the Orange Empire Conference Championships on Friday as the men placed fourth, while the women's team ran well.

Riverside City College took home a pair of OEC team titles at Friday's championships, hosted by Orange Coast College at Mile Square Park.

On the women's side, it was the Tigers with 32 points, followed by Saddleback (44 points), Orange Coast (68), Santiago Canyon (100) and Golden West (103). For the men, it was RCC (31 points), followed by OCC (41), Saddleback (63), Fullerton (115), Golden West (143) and Santiago Canyon (143).

The OEC women's individual champion was Saddleback College standout Danna Ibarra Canales, who set the pace early and crossed the finish line on the 5K course with a time of 19 minutes, 1.12 seconds, just four seconds ahead of Riverside's Savannah Ganter (19:05.91) and seven seconds clear of OCC's Liberty Miller (19:08.94).

FC's top runner on the women's team was Haily Roberts placed 20th overall with a time of 23:18.59, while Katherine Flores-Salguero placed 25th with a time of 25:50.81. Michelle Garcia took 27th (26:38.34) out of 37 runners.

For the men's race, Riverside's Ernesto Ruiz broke away from OCC's Jimmy Dominguez and finished the 4-mile race with a time of 19:40.59. Dominguez finished second with a time of 20:13.47, while Pirate teammate Viencent Luong-Kha took third with a time of 20:25.86.

The Hornet's best runner was Steven Castro, who placed 14th overall out of 56 runners. Castro earned 2ns Team All-Conference honors for his strong 21:40.37 finish.

14th place overall. Luis Diaz placed 27th (22:59.76), was 32nd Louis Guardado (23:27.80), Lucas Allen took 40th (24:33.74), Noah Cotto placed 41st (24:39.14), Edgar Guttierrez was 42nd (24:41.91), David Vera Lopez placed 45th (25:02.94), and rounding out the top 50 runners was Gustavo Ramirez at 50 (26:46.34).

Complete results from Friday's Orange Empire Conference Cross Country Championships can be found by clicking HERE.

Up Next: The Southern California Regional Championships will take place on Friday, Nov. 3 at El Dorado East Regional Park, beginning at 10:00 am for the women's race and 11:00 am for the men's race. The 3C2A State Championships will be held on Nov. 18 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

*Special thanks to Orange Coast College's Tony Altobelli for covering the event.