Ben Garland placed eighth and Omar Padilla ninth on Friday, leading SBCC to a fifth-place finish in the SBCC Cross Country Invitational at Shoreline Park. In the women’s race, the Vaqueros took sixth, paced by Cecilia Instebo (9th) and Kelly Mayer (10th).
Garland was clocked in 22:14 and Padilla ran 22:22 on the 4-mile course that started at Leadbetter Beach. Daniel Herrera of Cerritos won the men’s race in a course-record time of 21:19, one second ahead of teammate Munir Kahssay.
Orange Coast, ranked No. 4 in Southern Cal, was the men’s champion with 43 points.
“Ben and Omar ran a tremendous race up front,” said SBCC coach Scott Fickerson. “Fifth place is a solid finish for the men against a top field. It’s great to run strong at home and a good way to head into the WSC Championships.”
In the women’s 5K race, Instebo ran 21:15 and Mayer was clocked in 21:16, 33 seconds faster that she ran in the WSC Preview on the same course a week earlier. Robinea McClinton of Compton won the race in 20:40.
Antelope Valley took the women’s team title with 52 points.
“The women ran great, I’m really proud of them,” Fickerson stated. “We had an average of improvement of around 40-45 seconds over last week’s race. That’s just an amazing effort.”
The Vaqueros will compete in the WSC Championships on Oct. 25 at Cuesta.
Men
Team (12 schools) — 1, Orange Coast 43. 2, El Camino 62. 3, Cerritos 68. 4, Sequoias 134. 5, SBCC 156. 6, Fresno City 170. 7, Antelope Valley 178. 8, East L.A. 235.
Individual (4 miles) — 1, Daniel Herrera, Cerritos, 21:19 (course record. 2, Munir Kahssay, Cerritos, 21:20.
SBCC runners — 8, Ben Garland 22:14. 9, Omar Padilla 22:22. 59, Nery Gonzalez 24:29. 67, Chino Garnica 24:46. 75, Jamison Leighton 25:03. 94, Dennis Jonsson 26:05. 107, Mark Angelopoulos 27:19.
Women
Team (12 schools) — 1, Antelope Valley 52. 2, Cerritos 93. 3, Victor Valley 100. 4, Sequoias 112. 5, Orange Coast 130. 6, SBCC 144. 7, Compton 172. 8, Fresno City 199.
Individual (5K) — 1, Robinea McClinton, Compton, 20:40. 2, Bailey Henshaw, Sequoias, 20:41.
SBCC runners — 9, Cecilia Instebo 21:15. 10, Kelly Mayer 21:16. 23, Harley Arce 22:15. 62, Ashleigh Giacomotti 25:39. 63, Jenny Paul 25:47. 76, Rita Beltran 27:55.
