Cross country: Pirates fare well in San Diego

SAN DIEGO - Despite some rather odd happenings, Orange Coast

College men’s and women’s cross country teams fared well in the San Diego

Mesa Cross Country Invitational.

The Pirate women placed 1-2-3-4 and grabbed six of the top nine spots.

Zoila Gomez, last year’s OCC Female Athlete of the Year, won the race,

despite being directed the wrong way.

The invalid directions caused her to go from first place to fifth, but

she was able to make up the time and pull out the win at 20:04.00, two

seconds ahead of teammate Berenlee Carbajal.

“This was not a team scoring event,” Coach John Goldman said. “But

some of the top teams in California were in attendance, including Santa

Ana, Glendale and San Bernadino Valley colleges.”

On the men’s side, freshman Manuel Orozco (Estancia High) was the

Pirates’ top finisher, placing 13th.

In the endurance category, returning All-State runner Juan Sanchez,

had a solid effort. After being stepped on, causing him to lose one of

his shoes, Sanchez ran the next three miles with one shoe on and still

managed to place 14th, just behind Orozco.

“I truly believe that this is the strongest opener our men’s team has

had since I came to Coast in 1996,” Goldman said. “The Orange Coast

Conference is going to be an extremely tight battle as the year

progresses.”