OCC’s Gomez Runs Successful Courses

Zoila Gomez of Orange Coast has made great strides academically and athletically.

The sophomore has gone from speaking very little English and running even less while living in Mexico to being the top runner and team captain for the Pirates, who are two-time defending state champions.

Gomez won the Southern California cross-country championship last season and was fifth in the state meet. She went on to win the 10,000-meter race and finish third in the 5,000 at the state track and field meet last spring. She also was selected the Orange County community college female athlete of the year.

But Gomez isn’t too caught up in her athletic accomplishments; it’s her academic achievements that have her most excited.

She has finally qualified for English 100, which she needs to transfer to a four-year college, and is taking it this semester.

Gomez had no plans of moving to the United States from her home in Charcas, a town of about 7,000 in the state of San Luis Potosi in central Mexico. But that changed when she didn’t score high enough on the placement test to be admitted to the university system in Mexico.

Gomez was frustrated, and her oldest brother suggested she come to Costa Mesa, where he was living with his wife.

Gomez was granted residency and spent a year in adult education classes learning English. Because she was 17, she was then off to Costa Mesa High.

“I was most concerned about my education,” Gomez said. “I wanted a career. I wanted the chance to study. I wanted to be somebody.”

Gomez shows the same determination on the track, where she was as new to the strategy of running as she was to the English language.

She had run in her town’s race once a year in Mexico and done well each time, so she decided to run cross-country at Costa Mesa High because she liked the idea of being part of a team.

But the experience was very new. “I had no idea I should drink water,” Gomez said, “or eat the right foods or anything like that.”

Track was much the same story.

“The coach said that we were going to run four 800s and I had no idea what that was,” she said. “I said to myself that I was just going to follow my teammates. . . . I was really quiet. I was so embarrassed. My teammates would talk and talk and talk and all I would do is just laugh. I had no idea what they were saying.”

Costa Mesa’s cross-country team won the state Division IV title with Gomez as the No. 2 runner behind Jamie DeNoewer, who is now at New Mexico State.

“We like to say [Gomez] was the best-kept secret in high school,” OCC Coach John Goldman said. “We knew she’d hardly been running at all. But she has a lot of talent and is really dedicated. Picking her as team captain was an easy choice.”

POLO POLL

West Valley, which stopped Golden West’s string of nine consecutive state men’s water polo titles last fall, starts this season as the top-ranked team in the state.

Golden West is second and Saddleback third.

Golden West and West Valley could meet as soon as this weekend in the Cuesta tournament.

In the women’s rankings, Golden West, which has won two state titles, has the No. 1 team with Riverside second and Orange Coast third.

Fullerton sophomore Katie Hayden (Esperanza High) set the Hornets’ career scoring record last weekend during the Saddleback tournament. Hayden, who started the season needing nine points to overtake the record of 98 held by Katherine Guidi (1996-97), set the mark late in a 5-4 loss to Palomar.