Friday

Central Arizona Cross Country competed at the Manny Bautista Invitational hosted by San Diego Mesa College on Friday.  The meet, which consisted primarily of two year institutions from California, gave the cross country teams a taste of how to race on different terrain.

"Our races up to this point have been primarily on dirt, so I'm glad both teams had an opportunity to compete on some uneven grass and mud"  Stated Head Coach Jon Harmon.

The Vaqueros won the invitational, placing as the top college among 23 other programs.  The Vaqueros put four runners in the top ten and their score of 45 was significantly lower than Mt Sac (72 points) and host San Deigo Mesa College (73 points), respectively. 

"The men really wanted to come out and aim to leave with shirts and hats" Stated Harmon.  "So for that to happen I explained that they need to challenge themselves and set their standard high, I'm happy they accomplished what they set out to do."

The Vaqueros were once again led by Samuel Gilson.  Samuel toured the 4 mile race in 20:14.50 which was good enough for 3rd place overall.  This marks the second time this season that Samuel has earned top scoring honors for the Vaqueros.

Rounding out scoring for the Vaqueros were:

Jayden Smith (20:20.14) placed 5th overall.

Japhet Kiprono (20:24.42) placed 6th overall.

Sulliman Rodriguez (20:41.26) placed 10th overall.

Emmanuel Simiyu (21:10.82) placed 25th overall.

Marius Delchard (21:17.96) placed 31st overall.

Jorge Felix Valle (21:19.60) placed 35th overall.

Cross Country will be back in action as they travel to Portland, OR to compete in the George Oja Invitational hosted by Linfield University on Saturday.