Glendale Men Race to Cross-Country Potential

Glendale College bounced back from a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Southern California championships two weeks ago to win the state junior college men’s cross-country title Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.

The Vaqueros totaled 119 points to defeat two-time defending state champion Moorpark, which had 139.

Bakersfield was third with 189 points to give the Western State Conference a sweep of the first three places.

Rey Coronado of Moorpark finished fifth with a time of 20:48 over the four-mile course and teammate Todd Disney was sixth in 20:51, but the Southern California champion Raiders couldn’t overcome Glendale’s depth.

Jose Merino of Glendale finished 11th in 21:03 with Eduardo Diaz 21st in 21:16.

Rafael Ramos was 32nd in 21:27 with Juan Fernandez 33rd in 21:28 and Jorge Lopez 38th in 21:31 for the Vaqueros.

In contrast, Moorpark’s third-through-fifth runners finished 45th, 49th and 56th.

“We ran about as well as we were capable of running,” Coach Doni Green of Moorpark said. “They packed all their guys in together real tight like we did last year.

“You have to give them credit.”

Mike Barkhuff of Antelope Valley finished seventh in 20:57 to help the Marauders to a 12th-place total of 293 points.

Aaron Sharp of Oxnard was 12th in 21:04 and Victor Ochoa of Ventura finished 17th in 21:10.

Valley placed seventh in the women’s meet with 248 points. Glendale, the WSC champion, was 11th with 342 and Moorpark was 12th with 355.

Patricia Loera of Valley placed sixth with a time of 18:47 over the 5,000-meter course and teammate Yadi Estrada was 13th in 19:22, but the Monarchs were without Marisol Barajas.

Barajas won the 1996 state title, but she dropped out of the Santa Barbara Invitational on Oct. 17 because of a strained hamstring and hasn’t raced since.

Julie Harris of Glendale was the top Southern Californian finisher with a fourth-place time of 18:37.