Orange Coast College 'Pirates' sink competition; sweep honors at state cross country championships

Saturday, November 22, 2003
Woodward Park
Fresno, CA

By Woody Wilk, FCC SID

Step back, Johnny Depp and "Pirates of the Caribbean," 'cause the Orange Coast College 'Pirates' have all the treasure!

The treasure is a broadside sweep of the California Community College Cross Country Championships held at Fresno's Woodward Park on a nippy, yet sunny, Nov. 22 morning. For the first time in the combined history of the event, the winners of the team and individual titles are all from the same college. The women have been racing for 27 years, the men for 40.

Racing first, OCC's women's team made it a three-peat with a convincing 46-95 win over its closest competitor, El Camino. In fact, the Pirates have won six of the last seven state championships. Does the term 'dynasty' come to mind?

Ava Jones led the way for OCC with a 17:44 clocking over the 5,000 meter course and finished: 21 seconds ahead of Mt. San Antonio's Christina Lara. Jones finished third as a freshman in 2002 with a time of 18:07 over the same course.

Three other OCC runners followed Jones to finish in the top 14: Ann Garton, 18:54; Sandra Montoya, 18:55 and Ludi Valdez, 19:04. Jessica Huerta was the fifth OCC runner at 19:16.
While the women were savoring their victory, the men's 4-mile race began and when OCC's first three runners finished 1, 3 and 4, the outcome had been cast. The next two scoring Pirates runners finished 11th and 15th and the Jolly Roger was flying proudly.

OCC's Humberto Rojas and Gerardo Rabelo of East Los Angeles ran a spirited race for the individual title, but Rojas pulled away in the final stretch and timed 20:18 to nip Rabelo's 20:21. Rojas' teammates Art Diaz and José Casillas were close at 20:27. David Ojeda came in at 20:50 and Vidal Barragan was the fifth Pirate at 21:03.

When it was over, OCC had heavily outpointed American River 34-93 for a huge, convincing victory in the 40th men's state championship race.

While OCC captured most of the laurels, any runner who finished in the Top 14 in their respective races, qualified for All-State honors.