Moorpark Has Look of Title Contender

The Moorpark College men’s cross-country team should think twice about messing with a winning combination.

The Raiders won the Southern California junior college championships at Irvine Regional Park on Saturday to improve their season record to 2-0 while competing in white singlets with black shorts, yet team members talked afterward about changing their look for the state championships in Fresno on Nov. 22.

Moorpark’s runners first shunned their traditional black tank tops when they took six of the top eight places in the Cuesta Invitational on Oct. 18.

The defending state champions were even more impressive Saturday--considering the quality of competition--when they placed six runners among the top 29 finishers to total 89 points.

San Diego Mesa was second with 106 points, followed by Glendale with 108 and Saddleback with 180.

The top 14 teams and the top 30 individuals not on a qualifying team advanced to the state championships.

“We knew our top three had to run very well and stay up there,” Moorpark’s Jesus Villavicencio said. “And then our next three or four could take care of things.”

Villavicencio placed seventh with a time of 20:30 over the four-mile course and Rey Coronado was 11th in 20:38 to help Moorpark to its first victory of the season against San Diego Mesa and Glendale.

Moorpark finished 36 points behind first-place San Diego Mesa in the Golden Coast Invitational in September and the Raiders were 0-4 against Glendale entering the meet, but their top six runners ran superbly.

In addition to Villavicencio and Coronado, Uzziel Gray placed 17th in 20:50, Alejandro Tinajero finished 26th in 21:02, Efrain Garcia was 28th in 21:06 and Danny Oliva was 29th in 21:08.

“We all just raced our best,” Coronado said. “That was our main goal coming into this meet.”

Glendale, which defeated Moorpark, 31-40, in the Western State Conference finals Oct. 30, had the best trio in the race. Julio Serratos finished fourth in 20:08, Rafael Ramos placed eighth in 20:31 and Jose Merino was 16th in 20:47, but the Vaqueros’ fourth and fifth runners were 38th and 42nd.

“We didn’t hold on,” Glendale Coach Eddie Lopez said of the last mile. “I’m not trying to lay the blame on anyone, but when your fifth man is 42nd, you’re not going to win.”

Ventura’s Miguel Galindo had the other notable performance by a local runner in the men’s race, finishing sixth in 20:24 to help the Pirates to a 14th-place total of 357 points.

Glendale finished sixth, Ventura placed 10th and Moorpark was 14th in the women’s 5,000-meter race.

The Vaqueros totaled 196 points to the 26 of first-place Orange Coast, which had five of the top 10 finishers.

Kelly Sill placed 23rd in 20:56 and teammate Kelly Doyle was 31st in 21:14 for WSC champion Glendale.

“We just wanted to qualify today and then get ready for [the state championships],” Coach Melissa Seale said. “We had a couple of girls running with injuries so we just wanted to get through.”