IRVINE – Some things new and some things old were the highlights that emanated from Friday's Orange Empire Conference Cross Country Championships at Mason Park. Riverside City College successfully defended last year's title with an impressive effort, while Santa Ana College's Toni Lopez became the first individual women's cross country champion school history.
The Tigers, who snapped Orange Coast College's 18-year OEC title run last year, again led the way with a team score of 32 points, followed by OCC (61), Saddleback (76), Santa Ana (103), Santiago Canyon (116), Fullerton (143) and Golden West (210). RCC had all five point-producing runners finish in the top-12 as the Tigers tamed the rest of the OEC field on a picture-perfect day.
In was a four-person battle down the stretch of the 5K race as Lopez, Riverside's Brianna Jacklin, OCC's Alyssa Allen and SCC's Gabrielle De La Rosa set the pace for the rest of the 54-runner field. Finally, with less than a mile to go, Lopez found that extra gear and made her move, a move that the other three runners could not answer.
Lopez crossed the finish line and made SAC history with a winning time of 19 minutes, 16.1 seconds. Jacklin finished second with a time of 19:23.9, followed by Allen (19:55) and De La Rosa (19:55.8).
That impressive foursome is joined by the Riverside trio of Crystal Tejeda (5th, 20:06.4), Natalie Vaughn (6th, 20:09.8) and Alexis Louis (7th, 20:10.7) as first-team, All-Orange Empire Conference selections thanks to their top-7 finishes.
Second team honors were earned by OCC's Jenessa Reyes (8th, 20:014.5), Pirate teammate (Bethani Heising (20:19.3), Fullerton's Andrea Mendez (10th, 20:22.4), Saddleback's Caroline Dagarin (11th, 20:31.2), RCC teammates Liliana Vargas (12th, 20:36.6) and Morgan Tapia (13th, 20:36.8) and Saddleback's Angel Vallier (14th, 20:57.9).
Up next for the OEC competitors is the Southern California Regional Meet, held on Friday at 10 a.m. down at San Diego's Mission Bay Park.