Mt. SAC men, Glendale women prevail at JC preview meet; ELAC's Aceves and COC's Ornelas are individual winners

By Erik Boal, DyeStatCAL Editor

Laura Aceves and Rodrigo Ornelas were in a similar place at last year's Southern California cross country preview meet, both finishing as the top freshman in their respective races.

Aceves went on to win the California Community College Athletic Association state title, the first by an East L.A. College female runner since 1985.

Ornelas struggled to a 24th-place finish at the state final for College of the Canyons.

Aceves and Ornelas shared the spotlight again Friday at the So Cal preview meet, hosted by L.A. Trade Tech at Woodley Park in Van Nuys. But Ornelas is motivated not only produce a better finish individually in November at Woodward Park in Fresno, but lead the Cougars to their first state championships since 1975.

Ornelas clocked 20 minutes, 11.4 seconds on the 4-mile course to win the men's title, helping COC place second to Mt. San Antonio College by a 53-55 margin.

"I really want to redeem myself for everything that happened (last year). I want to get rid of that memory," Ornelas said. "I felt really good and really energized today. I was really pumped up and motivated to go out and run well for our team."

Aceves covered the 5-kilometer course in 18:11.7 to secure the women's victory.

"So far, I feel strong, I feel good and I feel like I'm running under control," Aceves said. "In the back of my mind I have the state meet, but right now, I'm just focusing on taking it race by race and doing my best in each race. I was just focused on today and that's it. That's how I approach it and focus on improvement every time I run."

Behind Aceves and Ornelas, exciting team battles unfolded, especially in the men's race, with Mt. SAC and COC trading leads three times in the final two miles to prevail over third-place American River College (68), the three-time state champion.

"We knew American River would go out fast the first mile, so I just told our guys to stay patient," Mt. SAC men's coach Victor Estrada said. "It's too early right now to be thinking about state, I just want them to stay humble. It's definitely going to help them with their confidence, but COC and American River are both very good teams and we know they're going to be there (later in the season)."

COC defeated Mt. SAC by a 64-80 margin Sept. 6 at the Fresno Invitational at Woodward Park.
"We wanted to make a statement today and show what we had, so I'm kind of disappointed," Ornelas said. "We know we have a lot of time to get it right. I want our team to win state, but we know we've got a lot of work to do in order to make that happen."

Orange Coast's Lucio Ramirez was second in 20:16.5, with Mt. SAC's Kevin Matthews third in 20:20.2, El Camino's Teddy Kassa (20:24) in fourth, American Rver's Abdul Hamid (20:29.1) placing fifth.

Mt. SAC and COC both had three runners in the top 10, but the Mounties had all five scorers in the top 20, with the Cougars' fifth runner placing 27th.

"We had a lot left at the end, which is good. We just needed to be more aggressive from the start," COC coach Lindie Kane said. "But it's a long season and we just need to stay focused and keep improving."

Orange Coast (156), Glendale (178) and El Camino (185) placed fourth through sixth in the men's race.

After suffering a 20-point setback to COC at the Fresno Invitational, Glendale prevailed 51-68 in the women's race, with Mt. SAC (79) taking third.

"We can't get excited now, we need to save it for state," Glendale coach Eddie Lopez said. "We've got the speed, it's just a matter of time before we put it all together, so I know we're going to continue to get better. It's good to be able to spar with them. We know we're going to see them again next week (at Golden West), so we better be ready."

Glendale, COC and Mt. SAC accounted for eight of the top 10 women's finishers, with Cerritos' Ariel Melendez (18:42.6) placing seventh.

Mt. SAC had Sierra Ungerman (18:19) and Lindsey Keough (18:37.6) place second and fifth. Glendale had Jassmine Macon (18:25.1), Concepcion Flores (18:46.6) and Mariah Ayala (18:58.7) finish third, eighth and 10th. COC had Shalyn Mabritto (18:25.6), Dominique Dowell (18:39.4) and Alexandra Whitman (18:58.6) secure fourth, sixth and ninth.

After losing 15-65 to COC on Aug. 29 at the Ventura Invitational and finishing fourth behind COC, Glendale and Cerritos at the Fresno Invitational, Mt. SAC closed the gap Friday by a significant amount against their rivals.

"We haven't had everybody in place until now, so this is a good sign. We know we can compete with them now," Mt. SAC women's coach Doug Todd said. "Glendale is a good team and they always run well at the end of the year. I thought we were a good team, but this really demonstrated that we're capable of being up there with COC and Glendale."