VC Men's XC 2nd, Women Run Strong at Oxnard Invite

The Pirates' men's and women's cross country teams opened up the 2017-18 athletic season, running at the Oxnard Invitational Friday morning.  In nearly perfect running conditions, the VC men placed second out of seven teams while the women, running shorthanded to open the year, placed three runners in the top-12 of the 47-participant race. Adan Cruz led the Pirate men, placing seventh in the race while Fabiola Flores Gomez paced the VC women, placing ninth.

The Pirate women ran the opening race of the day on the Oxnard College campus, and despite having just four runners participate, had a strong early-season outing.  Ventura had three runners finish in the top 12 led by Flores Gomez, who completed the 5k course (3.1 miles) in 19:47. Macy Schmidt finished close behind in 10th place at 20:03, and Tatiana Garcia was 12th in 20:15. Kiara Estrada finished 39th with a time of 25:08. The Pirate women did not field enough participants to record a team score.

The VC men's team also used the OC invite ate their season opener, finishing second overall, surpassing Western State Conference rivals Bakersfield, Canyons, Oxnard and Antelope Valley.  Glendale finished first in the team competition. Cruz had a strong seventh-place finish, running the flat 4-mile course in 21:24 for five team points. Juan Martinez  came in 20th of the 66 runners (22:20, 16 points), followed by Dan Thow (28th, 22:38, 21 points), Alex Ambriz (29th, 22:40, 22 points), Adrian Orozco (42nd, 23:29, 34 points), Evan Pederson (44th, 23:32, 35 points), Ernie Nombrano (47th, 23:40, 37 points), Luis Barriga (51st, 24:12), John Chavez (60th, 26:37) and Axel Mora (65th, 32:07). 

With the Pirates' home course at Arroyo Verde Park unusable due to last winter's heavy rains, the annual Ventura Invitational has been canceled for 2017.  Instead, the Pirates will travel to Brea next weekend, participating in the Cal State Fullerton Mark Covert Classic.  VC will run at Carbon Canyon Regional Park on Saturday Sept. 2 with the women's race beginning at 8:30 am.