Glendale Community College cross-country enjoys top-five success

Glendale Community College Coach Eddie Lopez expressed elation, but self-control Friday after a morning in which both his women’s and men’s cross-country teams turned in top-five performances at the Southern California Preview Meet held at Van Nuys’ Woodley Park.

For a second time this season, the women clinched a meet victory, while the men placed fifth in a competition attended by most of the top programs within Southern California.

“I’m excited but I had to temper that feeling because it’s only a preview meet,” Lopez said. “We did well for both the men and women and it was probably the best overall meet for both programs, but we also have a lot to improve.”

The women finished with 51 points in holding off Western State Conference rival College of the Canyons, which placed second with 68 points, on the five-kilometer course. The victory comes two weeks after Canyons defeated Glendale, 44-64, at the Fresno Invitational.

“That’s what’s nice about this win is that we beat Canyons,” Lopez said. “Again, though, we’re going to be seeing them all year long, so you can’t get too excited.”

Freshman Jassmine Macon paced the Vaqueros by placing third overall in 18 minutes, 25.1 seconds in a race won by East Los Angeles College sophomore Laura Aceves in 18:11.7.

Macon was her team’s lone top-10 placer as Glendale’s No. 2 runner, Concepcion Flores, earned 11th in 18:46.6.

Flores was followed by scoring teammates Mariah Ayala (21st, 18:58.7), Stacy Macias (34th, 19:06) and Glindyll Mancia (51st, 19:21.1).

Combined, the Vaqueros turned in the race’s top team time of 1 hour, 34 minutes, 38.6 seconds, while tallying the second-best gap time of 56 seconds, which trailed only Ventura’s mark of 45.5 seconds.

“We’re happy with the gap,” said Lopez, whose women’s team started the season with a victory at the Mark Covert Classic on Aug. 30. “It shows we’re improving.”

Southern California power Mt. San Antonio, also a challenger to Glendale, took third with 79 points.

As for the men, Glendale placed fifth overall with 178 points, well off the pace of race-winner Mt. SAC (53 points).

More to the concern of Lopez, reigning conference champion College of the Canyons took second in the race with 55 points.

“The guys ran better this week than before, but we still have a long way to go,” Lopez said.

Freshman Vahagn Isayan led the way for Glendale in taking 24th in 20:55.4, about eight seconds and 30 spots ahead of teammate Edwin Morales (54th, 21:03.4).

Rory Norman (94th, 21:16) ran third for Glendale, ahead of fellow Vaqueros Marc Marcano (135th, 21:17.2) and Eros Velasquez (178th, 21:21.2).

Perhaps the most impressive element for the Vaqueros was their 25.7 gap, which was the third-best gap of any team.

Overall, Canyons’ Rodrigo Ornelas captured the individual race victory in a time of 20:11.4.

“What I like is that we’re starting to adapt to the training and now are showing improvement,” Lopez said. “We started a week earlier this year and it good to see that the team is getting better.”