Orange Coast men and women win conference

Former Estancia High standouts Jose Casillas and Ludi Valdez each won

individual titles while helping their respective Orange Coast College

men’s and women’s cross country teams to Orange Empire Conference

championships at Riverside College’s Moreno Valley Campus Saturday.

Casillas’ 20:47 led a quartet of OCC men’s runners who took the

top four spots. Estancia High product Humberto Rojas finished second

in 20:49 while Jason Valencia placed third (21:09) followed by Kellon

Acosta in fourth (21:14) to help the Pirate men claim their fourth

straight conference crown. The Bucs earned 16 points while Santa Ana

scored 70 to place second.

Valdez finished in 19:33, well ahead of her closest competitor --

Riverside’s Angella Nanyonyi took second in 19:59 -- helping the

Coast women claim their ninth straight conference title. Coast

tallied 29 points while Riverside came in second with 45.

The Pirate men placed six of the top nine runners, including Matt

Staggs (sixth in 21:46) and Jesus Salazar (ninth in 21:59).

The Coast women placed six in the top 10, including Gabriela

Santana (fifth in 20:12), Emilie Vo (sixth in 20:27), Norma Hernandez

(eighth in 20:43), Jewel Butler (ninth in 20:44) and Rebecca Powell

(10th in 20:59). Jennifer Sliwa (17th in 21:31), Araceli Huerta (22nd

in 22:02), Mayra Munoz (34th in 24:00), Veronica Roach (45th in

25:53), Liz Reyes (52nd in 28:39) and Jhoana Tepos (56th in 31:04)

also finished for Coast.

Both Pirate teams will compete in the Southern California finals

at 9 a.m. Saturday at Fairbanks Park in San Luis Obispo.

Mike Arcianaga (16th in 22:47), Patrick Fitzgerald (20th in

23:07), Chris Durst (21st in 23:12), James Turner (37th in 24:36),

Derek Dominguez (43rd in 25:29), Alex Campbell (44th in 25:31) and

Andre Cruz-Hill (48th in 25:57) contributed for Coast.

Barnes, Ramirez shine

* UC Irvine junior Ricky Barnes and senior Kim Ramirez each earned

All-Big West Conference honors with top-10 finishes in the conference

cross country championships at UC Riverside Saturday.

Barnes finished fifth in 24:22.4 on the 8,000-meter Agricultural

Operations course, helping UCI finished fourth with 103 points. Cal

Poly won its second straight team title with 37 points.

Ramirez placed sixth in 20:59 in the women’s 6,000-meter race,

leading UCI to a fifth-place finish with 133 points. UC Santa Barbara

won its second straight women’s title with 29 points.

Other Anteater men’s results included Tom Whelan in 17th (24:58),

Tim Hearst (20th in 25:05), Andrew Garratt (28th in 25:20.), David

Santos (37th in 25:40), John Kluve (45th in 25:58), Silvestre Uribe

(55th in 26:24), Matt Grilli (59th in 26:28) and Russell Bush (61st

in 26:42).

Marie Nguyen (21st in 21:49), Candice Proctor (33rd in 22:04),

Kelli Vanderburg (40th in 22:19), Kim Handel (43rd in 22:29), Megan

Fairley (45th in 22:33), Elaine Gillespie (47th in 22:35), Erinn Kim

(50th in 22:46) and Amber Gordon (64th in 23:16) rounded out UCI

women finishers.

Both Anteater teams will compete in the NCAA West regional Nov. 13

at Fresno’s Woodward Park.