When San Diego City College cross country runner Brandon Hernandez crossed the finish line at the Manny Bautista XC Invitational, he let out a loud shrill cry and simultaneous flex that symbolized his growth as a runner at City.
According to Knights cross country head coach Philip Dunn, Hernandez improved his time in the four-mile race by three minutes from last year’s event, finishing at 26 minutes, compared to 29 minutes previously.
“Brandon Hernandez did really well,” Dunn said after the race. “He has been improving steadily throughout the season, so it wasn’t a big surprise. I think in our last meet, he was our fourth guy, and today he was our second guy.”
In a crowded field of over 200 runners at NTC Park in Liberty Station, the City College men’s cross country team raced against in-state competition as well as one notable out-of-state school, Central Arizona College, who ended up winning the Manny Bautista XC Invitational.
Despite the team’s 23rd-place finish in a field of 24, Dunn saw this invitational as a great chance to compete against top-tier competition.
“It is one of the more competitive (invitationals),” Dunn said. “All of the top teams in the state in Southern California were here today. It’s the first time that we’ve seen some of the schools that are going to be in the top 10.”
City College sophomore David Kelling led the way for City College, posting a 23.02 time in the 4-mile race, which was significantly faster than his time in last week’s meet at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga.
“David (Kelling) did really well,” Dunn said. “He had raced last week, and his time today was over 50 seconds faster than last week’s time.”
City now looks ahead to the Pacific Athletic Coast Conference Championship race on Oct. 25 at Victor Valley College in Victorville.
This will be the last chance for the Knights to qualify for regional championships, a result Dunn is optimistic about achieving.
“We should be in the hunt to go to regionals,” Dunn said. “The top three schools in the conference advance to regionals, and if we run the way we did today, we’ll have a chance to qualify.”
Beyond regionals, Dunn hopes his team will continue to run well enough for the state championship meet at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 23.
City would have to finish in the top 16 teams out of 28 competing in regionals, a task Dunn said is within reason.
“It’d be great if we could make it onto the state meet as a team,” Dunn said. “It’ll be a big ask, but I think if everybody performs as well as they did today and continues to improve, I’ll be super happy as a coach just to see that progress.”
