September 30, 2023

The Central Arizona College Cross Country teams participated in the ACCAC Conference Championship, hosted by CAC last week.  The course toured the beautiful campus in Coolidge, which started at George Young Gymnasium.

The Vaqueras claimed 2nd place out of 9 teams.  All of the schools participating at the meet were NJCAA D1 and D2 colleges.  Schools in attendance were Central Arizona, Mesa CC, Paradise Valley CC, Pima, Estrellea CC, Glendale, Phoenix, Tohono O'odham, and Coconino.

Top finisher for the Vaqueras went to Alesyia Barlow, who toured the course in 19:53 which was good enough for 4th place overall.  There were 42 finishers in this years race.  In addition to Alesyia placing as the Vaqueras top finisher, she also ran a new personal record. A mark she previously hit two weeks ago at the Showcase Invitational in Alabama.

"I'm proud of the ladies, they really stepped up and had every intention of making sure that the other teams were going to have to work hard in order to beat them." "I did not see any quit in any of them which makes me happy but still a lot of work to do."  Stated Head Coach Jon Harmon.

"Alesyia and Alexis both ran PR's today and given the temperature and course we ran on I'm very impressed."  "The other ladies ran exceptional too, we fought well against the top ranked D2 school in the nation."  "Brianna, Temyra, and Jessica all maintained close distance to help us get 2nd place, I'm happy with their showing today."

The remaining Vaqueras finished as follows:

Brianna Samuels (20:00) placed 5th overall.

Temyra Bia (20:15) placed 6th overall.

Alexis Fisher (20:38) placed 10th overall and new PR.

Jessica Viera (20:51) placed 12th overall.

Lasundari Baldwin (21:41) 23rd overall.

The women will be back in action on October 7th at the George Young Invitational, which is being held by Central Arizona College.  The women will race at 9:00am which follows the men's race that starts at 8:00am.