Mounties Double Up: Score Men's/Women's Cross Country State Titles
For the second time in five years, the South Coast Conference produced a double team championship as Mt. San Antonio College won both the men's and women's team titles at the 2022 CCCAA Cross Country Championships held at Fresno's Woodward Park.
On the men's side, sophomore Jesse Alvarado, fifth at the state meet a year ago, broke the individual, 4-mile course record at 19:51.2, beating the previous mark set last year by his then Mt. SAC teammate Daniel Abdala.
Mt. SAC scored 59 points, edging last year's champion San Diego Mesa (62) by just three points. It is the closest men's title race in the 21st century and at least as far back as 1998. Alvarado's first place and SD Mesa's top finisher David Millan (fourth place) was ultimately the difference in winning for the Mounties.
Alvarado led Mt. San Antonio's five scoring runners with Elijah Ocegueda (10th, 20:27.8), Jalen Griego (14th, 20:36.2), Jonathan Pfeiffer (15th, 20:37.1) and Austin Ledgerwood (19th, 20:46.1) completing the team title for Mt. SAC.
Alvarado used Abdala's achievements as a barometer and goal throughout the season and said while his personal goals were pushing him, so was the goal of winning a team title. Alvarado was in first place after each mile.
"I had no idea (I was on record pace)," Alvarado said. "I was kind of going for that but it was more me thinking team-wise. I really didn't care about the record, I was just running my race. Overall, I kind of figured I was on record pace. This whole year I was competing with (Abdala's) times, just trying to show colleges I am a different level and have a different skill set than him."
It's the fourth title for Mt. SAC and first since 2017. No other SCC team qualified for the championships.
MT. SAC WOMEN WIN BACK-TO-BACK STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Mt. San Antonio won its second straight CCCAA state title with 83 points as its top four runners finished in the field's top 30. SCC individual champion Hannah Brown took third overall to lead the Mounties in a time of 18:06.8 (top SoCal finisher) over the 3.1 mile course.
Mt. SAC outdistanced second-place San Diego Mesa by 55 points. From the South Coast, El Camino placed fifth behind seventh place individual racer Seqoia Gonzales (18:39.4), Cerritos scored ninth, and Long Beach City was 19th.
After Brown, Mt. San Antonio was supported by 10th place finisher Claudia Vera (18:50.3), Karla Galvan in 17th (19:07.4), and Ingrid Tamayo in 30th (19:32.9).
Other top SCC individuals were El Camino's Ami Jacobson in 14th (18:54.4) and Long Beach's Aileen Rios in 20th (19:10.5).
It was the Mt. SAC women's program's 11th state championship and fourth since 2014.
"I think the women ran very well," Mt. SAC men's/women's cross country assitant coach Daniel Ozan said. "All year we've had a group of ladies who if someone was down or someone didn't have a good race, they always had their teammates to back them up. That's what they did again today. They executed the plan perfectly and they ran very, very well... Their first mile was a little bit slower than I would've liked. I was a little nervous but I had confidence that they were going to continue to execute the plan and they did. The goal was to win the title and they did."
Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID/Quotes courtesy of Woody Wilk, CCCAA/CCCSIA