AGUIRRE CONTINUES TO LEAD MARAUDER MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY, FINISHES 14TH AT WSC PREVIEW

SAN DIMAS - Sam Aguirre has been the staple of the Marauder men's cross country team all season and on Friday he continued his quest to make the state meet by finishing 14th at the Western State Conference Preview Meet at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, hosted by Citrus College.

"I started a little bit slower than usual, but as the two-mile mark came around I started to progress. I'm feeling really good right now. I haven't run this well since my junior year in high school. If I keep progressing I know I can run faster," Aguirre said. "I felt like we did pretty good today. I hope we can continue to improve as a team as the season progresses. I think we have the potential to move up more places."

Aguirre finished with a time of 23:02.48. Only 13 other racers broke the 23-minute mark and one of those, Glendale College's Raymond Lopez, broke the 22-minute mark.

"The athletes ran a hard race today against some rough terrain, but we were able to finish the race strong," AVC head coach Josh Villalobos said. "Today was about racing smart and getting a feel for the competition that we will see at the conference championships in Bakersfield."

Fernando Flores was AVC's second runner to finish after he completed the race in 24:33.66 to finish 41st. Ikenna Achara was 64th (26:14.03) and Matt Rose was 68th (26:36.30) for the Marauders. AVC's Nick Franco (27:03.98) finished 70th and teammate Brock Ruble was 77th (27:52.07).

AVC finished seventh overall as a team, while Glendale, which had three runners finish in the top 10, won the meet.