MARAUDERS MOVE CLOSER TO REGIONAL BID

The Antelope Valley College men's and women's cross country teams participated in the SoCal Regional Preview hosted by Cerritos College and held on the El Dorado Park course. This competition allows the southland teams to compete on the course that will send representatives to the November 18th CCCAA State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Though not at full strength (due to an illness), the women's team posted times that show the squad's training is paying off. As she did in the first two races, Ailani Salazar finished 64th (out of 170 entries). If she can maintain her overall position, she can potentially move on to the state meet as an individual qualifier.

Running in her first race of the year, Farah Williams finished 91st and stopped momentarily, finally realizing that 5k is longer than the 3-mile distance she was accustomed to running in high school. Coach Veney estimates Farah could have run over 40 seconds faster without the delay.

As she has in her last two races, Brianna Dominguez continues to run a new 5k personal best, taking 104th.

On the men's side, running without their number 2 man, Kai Smithley, the squad ran well enough to grab 16th overall (out of 32 entered teams). The top 14 teams at the November 3rd Regional final will advance to the state championships. The men's team was led by Tim Moreno (70th out of 263 finishers), followed by Leo Lopez (79th), Brayden Briggs (102nd in his first race), Eric Amaya 115th), Jesus Flores (126th), and Richard Rose (132nd).

WSC opponent Bakersfield College took the men's team title, followed by San Bernardino Valley and Orange Coast in the Bronze position.

The Marauder showing encouraged Coach Veney, who commented, "Without Smithley, we finished a mere 8 seconds per man out of the automatic state advancement position. We have 5 weeks to conference and 7 weeks to Regionals to make our push for a state qualifying berth." The Marauders return to action on September 29 when they make a second trip to Oxnard College for the WSC Preview. The women's 5k starts at 10 am, followed by the men's 4-mile race at 11 am.