The Riverside City College cross country team swept the team competition at the 2017 Orange Empire Conference Finals on Thursday in Mission Viejo. The Tigers left no doubt that they will be a force to be reckoned with next weekend at the Southern California Regional Finals.
Riverside showed up with 11 runners for the women's race and 27 for the men, making for an onslaught of Tigers crossing the finish line. Riverside started by taking the women's race with four of the top six runners in the field before the men had seven runners finish in the top-10.
The Tiger men were dominant, finishing 1-2-4-6-7-8-9. It was the third straight title for the Riverside men, setting them up nicely for the SoCal Finals next Friday.
Riverside had two runners in a mad dash for the finish line before Enrique Villa edged out teammate Ricardo Cardenas for gold medal honors. Villa scorched the 4-mile trek 20:57.5, finishing 0.3 seconds ahead of Cardenas. Jeffrey Robbins was the third Tiger to finish in the top-5 when he crossed the finish line in 21:30.6 for fourth place.
Riverside had four others finish in the top-10 as Angel Campos was 6th (21:39.5), Austin Dai was 7th (21:43.8), Deion Molina was 8th (21:44.7) and Alec Hall was 9th (21:52.7). In total, Riverside had eight harriers named to the all-conference team following the meet.
Runner of the Year – Enrique Villa, Riverside City College
Coach of the Year – Jim McCarron, Riverside City College
First-Team
Enrique Villa, Riverside City College
Ricardo Cardenas, Riverside City College
Eric Jimeneznava, Santa Ana College
Jeffrey Robbins, Riverside City College
Eduardo Guapilla, Santa Ana College
Angel Campos, Riverside City College
Austin Dai, Riverside City College
Second-Team
Deion Molina, Riverside City College
Alec Hall, Riverside City College
Brody Ray, Saddleback College
Hector Leon, Orange Coast College
Brian Grande, Fullerton College
Daniel Harper, Riverside City College
Jacob King, Saddleback College
TEAM SCORES:
Riverside, 20
Santa Ana, 59
Saddleback, 71
Orange Coast, 123
Fullerton, 126
Golden West, 176
Santiago Canyon, DNQ
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