COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Irvine Valley Women Are Third at Meet

Facing the strongest field so far this season, the Irvine Valley women’s cross-country team finished third at the Irvine Invitational Friday at Irvine Regional Park.

The Lasers, the defending State champions, finished third with 103 points. San Diego Mesa won the event with 72 points, defeating second-place El Camino by one.

Riverside’s Charlotte Mayock continued her strong running, winning the individual title. Mayock dominated the field a month ago at the conference race and did the same Friday. Mayock ran the 5,000-meter course in 19 minutes 41 seconds, but this time, Mayock was challenged.

She and El Camino’s Sawako Nakamura ran together early on. Mayock took a slight lead at the halfway point, but Nakamura stayed close.

When the runners entered the final 500 meters, Mayock put her head down and ran hard; Nakamura couldn’t answer and finished 10 seconds behind. Erin Remy of Orange Coast ran another strong race, finishing fourth in 20:03.

Irvine Valley’s Mayra Medina (20:29) was fifth, Fullerton’s Teresa Vega (20:35) sixth, and Golden West’s Kim Foster (20:45) was 10th. Vega, who was bothered by illness, needed assistance after the race but after cooling down and getting enough to drink, she was fine.

Darlene Pruitt of Irvine Valley was 14th (21:10) and Saddleback’s Natalie Lupica was 20th (21:35). The race featured 152 runners from 24 teams.

Orange County runners didn’t do so well in the men’s race. The top finisher was Irvine Valley’s Larry Holland who was 15th. His time was 20:55 on the four-mile course. Dax Baca of Irvine Valley was 17th in 21:02 and Jose Rangel of Rancho Santiago was 20th in 21:08.

Riverside’s Wilhelm Gidabuday dominated the race, winning in 19:19. Riverside took the first four places but Glendale (45) won the event. Riverside (52) was second and El Camino (86) third. Rancho Santiago (169) was fifth, Orange Coast (282) ninth and Fullerton (300) 12th.