The Pacific Coast Conference cross country championships were held on Oct. 30 at Morley Field and the Men and Lady Knights were out representing City College.
City’s top finisher for the men’s 4 mile run was Martin de la Cruz, placing 26th overall with a time of 23:49.
Following very close was team captain Rey Robledo, finishing in 28th place with a time of 24:00.80.
“It was hard, the hills were very steep and what made it more difficult was that the base (runner) was going really fast and I couldn’t keep up with him,” de la Cruz said.
The base runner was Southwestern College runner Dahir Mohamed, who finished first overall (20:57.40).
San Diego Mesa scored 45 points for the team championship, besting the Cuyamaca Coyotes by 6 points.
Southwestern was third with 58 points, while Palomar college tallied 70 points to round up the top four.
Placing fifth as a team with 144 points was no letdown for the men’s team, as Coach Peter Gregory saw it as a victory.
“They ran their hearts out today, they are the best team I’ve had in ten years,” Gregory said. “We are in one of the toughest conferences in the state of Calif. so I could not be more proud.”
Mesa College is 6th place, Southwestern is 8th place, Cuyamaca 11th place and City is 18th place in the state.
Team captain Rey Robledo said he believes the team is capable of doing better and reported to looking forward to next year’s season.
“This was a starting year; we only had one runner return from last year,”
Robledo explained. “We were together all the time and practiced 6 days a week in the mornings and at nights.”
On the Lady Knights’ side: they did not have the 5 runners required to compete for the team title on the 5k run, so their four runners competed individuals. The ladies still ran as representives of City College cross country team.
First year runner, Lady Mayra Guillen was City’s top finisher with a time of 26:49.80 and placing her in 28th place for the meet.
Close behind were Rachel Cruz and Kyndl Spencley with 28:00.80 and 28:41.10 for their individual times.
“I am really excited because I was able to beat my personal time by seven minutes,”
Guillen said. “I thought I would pass out today because of the hills.”
Coach Kylie Edwards said that the team did not bring out five runners because of injuries affecting the team, but she said that she was extremely proud of the runners that competed at this years cross country meet.
“They went out hot and did not sweat anything; I am really proud of them,” Edwards said.
For the womens’ side, Southwestern placed first as a team with 18 points and Mesa placed second with 40 points.