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 Vaqueras finished in 3rd place out of 17 other programs.  The Vaqueras put four runners in the top 30 and their score of 108 was significantly more than San Diego Mesa College (40 points) but only 7 off from second place Mt. Sac (101 points), respectively. 

"We had some solid individual performances today but we still are trying to figure out how to succeed as a team" Stated Harmon.  "So the ladies will continue to work on that as we move forward to the national meet."

The Vaqueras were once again led by Jessica Chapparro Viera.  Jessica toured the 5km race in 19:37.69 which was good enough for 10th place overall.  This marks the fourth time this season that Jessica has earned top scoring honors for the Vaqueras.

Rounding out scoring for the Vaqueras were:

Alesyia Barlow (19:50.68) placed 14th overall.

Colleen Allen (20:30.55) placed 26th overall.

Cassidy Davidson (20:42.51) placed 31st overall.

Reshila Curley (21:01.58) placed 41st overall.

Rylee Koopee (21:25.42) placed 50th overall.

Lyneen Jepkosgei (21:31.80) placed 54th 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.