No stopping state championship march for Glendale Community College women’s cross-country

This time, there was no stopping the Glendale Community College women’s cross-country team.

A year after suffering a letdown at the California Community College Athletic Assn. Championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park, the Vaqueros returned to Central California and turned in a truly dominant effort.

Glendale didn’t just win, but it crushed runner-up Hartnell, 37-117, on Saturday morning to complete a triple crown season, take home the program’s sixth state title and post a sub-18 minute, 50-second scoring quintet on a day in which the men finished sixth in state.

“It’s 11 years in a row that’ve we’ve finished in the top three [at state],” Glendale Community College Coach Eddie Lopez said in reference to his women’s team. “That’s four titles in the last [nine] years, four times they’ve taken first place. The main thing is to be consistent.

“We are the No. 1 program in the state, we can say that officially. Nobody has been better than us over the last 11 years.”

The win clinched Glendale’s first state title and triple crown — which is winning a conference crown (the Western State Conference in GCC’s case), Southern California Championships and state — since 2011.

Vaqueros sophomore Crystal Morales led her squad to victory by taking fourth in 18 minutes, 14 seconds in a race dominated by Southwestern’s Aminat Olowora (17:02).

“It means a lot to accomplish this,” Morales said. “I was confident that I would lead the group and the weather was great. You have to run smart. I’ve run here a few times and it helps because you know when you’re supposed to pick up the pace.”

As a team, the Vaqueros turned in a few brilliant accomplishments, including having all five runners finish in 18:40 or better, while turning in an incredible 26-second gap.

“We were the first team ever to have five runners going under 19 minutes, in fact, they went under 18:50,” Lopez said. “Our fifth runner, I believe we had two of them at 18:40. That’s why we won.”

Former Glendale High runner and Clark Magnet alumnus Leana Setian was No. 2 for the Vaqueros, taking sixth in 18:26, while Stacy Macias was ninth in 18:32.

Sophomore Brenda Sanchez took 11th, but tied time-wise with freshman Giselle Masedo (12th) as both finished with a mark of 18:40. Glendale’s championship squad also included Agnes Kirakosian (36th, 19:32) and Fabiola Naranjo (46th, 19:44).

For Morales, there was an extra bonus as she was part of last year’s cross-country squad that entered the state finals top-ranked and was looking to conclude a triple crown season.

That squad stumbled and finished third with 109 points behind Southern California rivals Mt. San Antonio College (78) and College of the Canyons (104).

This year, there was no such slip up as the Vaqueros easily won with third-place College of the Canyons (121 points) and fifth-place Mt. SAC (203) well in the distance.

“Ever since last year, winning state was on our mind,” said Morales, who was 41st (19:23.5) in 2014. “We kept that as our main goal the whole season.”

On the men’s side, there was also quite a bit of improvement as the Vaqueros finished sixth with 181 points in a four-mile race won by American River, which tallied 67 points.

That effort came a year after Glendale finished 11th in state.

“I’m proud of them,” Lopez said. “I still think they could have done better. There’s still a lot of learning to do, but we should return a lot of freshmen, which helps.”

Sophomore Vahagn Isayan provided some excitement, as the Verdugo Hills product led the men’s race at the midway point before finishing third in a time of 20:17.

“Vahagn led for most of the race,” Lopez said. “He led for about two miles, but they got him in the end, in the last 500 [meters].”

Isayan credited the opposition for its late rally.

“It’s kind of hard to lead the race by yourself because you’re doing all the work, but I believed that was my best strategy to potentially take away the kick from the guys chasing me. I planned it all along and I felt really good about it,” he said. “At the end, it wasn’t so much that I ran out of gas, but that those guys were phenomenal and found another gear.”

Glendale had only one other top-20 placer in Burroughs alumnus Shane Thompson (19th, 20:59.0) and one other top-50 finisher in sophomore Thomas Switzer (44th, 21:30.8).

College of the Canyons’ Ethan Walker won the men’s individual title in 20:09.8.