COLLEGE ROUNDUP

CROSS COUNTRY

Southern California

Championships

WALNUT — Led by first-place finisher Crystal Reed, the Orange Coast College women’s cross country team placed second at the meet held Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.

The Pirates men finished eighth.

In the 5k women’s event, the Pirates finished with 85 points, trailing only Glendale with 66. OCC freshman Reed won the race with her time of 17 minutes, 19 seconds. She was followed by teammate Cassie Mitchell in seventh in 18:50, and Ariana Espinoza in 16th in 19:28.

Senayt Asrat placed 20th in 19:35, Joanna Abarca was 43rd in 20:14 and Jillian Lopez (60th, 20:52) and Claire Fleming (74th, 21:18) also placed.

For the OCC men, sophomore Brandon Babiracki was sixth in the four-mile race in 21:09, followed by Preston Switzer in 39th in 22:15. Jorge Torres (22:31) was 51st, Chris Ponce (22:58) placed 75th and Sean Connor (23:04) was 78th.

Cooper Meacham’s time of 23:08 was good for 83rd place, and Nathaniel Mouzis (23:38) finished 110th.

Region II Championships

FRESNO — The Vanguard men’s cross country team, ranked 11th in the country, finished fourth with 114 points in the NAIA Region II championships Saturday, the team’s highest finish in program history.

No. 7 Cal State San Marcos won the meet with 65 points.

Three Lions earned all-region honors by finishing among the top 14 runners. Senior Jason Valenzuela (25 minutes, 23 seconds), freshman Roman Pascal (25:30), and senior Humberto Rojas (25:36) all clinched spots on the All-Region II team. The three runners all made the All-GSAC team two weeks ago at the Golden State Athletic Conference meet.

Valenzuela was eighth, Pascal was 11th, and Rojas finished in 14th place. The men’s team will be waiting to hear officially that it received an at-large berth to the NAIA national championships for the first time since 1995.

On the women’s side, No. 3 Azusa Pacific won the Region II championship, finishing 17 points ahead of the runner-up with 57 points, while the Lions placed eighth with 202 points.

Despite a leg injury that prevented her from running in the GSAC meet, 2006 All-American Rebecca Sopp finished 20th overall with a time of 18:54.

Junior Gina Attard finished 29th, 18 seconds behind Sopp with a time of 19:12. Sopp may be awarded an individual berth to the NAIA national meet. League officials will release the berths this week.

WOMENS’ SOCCER

UC Irvine 2, UC Riverside 0

IRVINE — Senior Makenzie Beahm and freshman Gilly Acedo both scored goals for UC Irvine Sunday to lead the Anteaters to a Big West Conference victory at Anteater Stadium.

Beahm scored off a rebound from a corner kick by senior Kim Conlan in the fifth minute. Acedo took a pass from senior Kim Horn and faced Riverside goalkeeper Brittany Goetz one-on-one for the second score at the 85:31 mark.

Freshman keeper Danielle de Seriere had six saves in her record-tying ninth shutout of the year.

Goetz had six saves for the Highlanders.

The Anteaters will play next in the Big West Tournament, which starts Friday.