Edith Noriega | Sports Editor

Oct. 16, 2014

Bouncing back from a feet-aching mid-week work out the Riverside City College women’s cross-country squad posted a second-place finish (54) points at the Howard Brubaker Invitational at the Irvine Regional Park Oct. 10.

“I think our training is really starting to show out on the field,” Rebecca “Maria” Morales said, 10th in the meet. “Our hard work and dedication usually starts to pay off toward the end of the season, so today’s improvement is no surprise.”

Leading the top spots for RCC was Briana Jacklin who finished third overall (19:17.8), followed by Rebecca Morales, who was 10th overall (19:54.6) and Crystal Tejeda, who was 12th overall (20:03.9).

“They are improving every meet,” Head Coach Damien Smith said. “Our sophomores ran faster this year than they did last year on this same course. That (improvement) is all we are trying to get out of the girls from race to race.”

The Tigers (54 points) finished behind the first-place Cerritos College Falcons (39 points). Placing third were the Southwestern College Jaguars (94 points) followed by the fourth-place Saddleback College Gauchos (97 points) and the fifth-place Palomar College Comets (135 points) over the five-kilometer (3.1 miles) course.

“Personally, I had a good race, since summer and the beginning of the season I’ve seen a gradual progress in everyone of my races and made my way to the top three in the team,” Morales said. “What really changed at the Brubaker Invitational was the way we raced as a team, we kept a close pack with five girls finishing in the top 12, sticking together really has paid off at our meet.”

“Our main thing is to peak at the right time which is the state meet Nov. 22,” Smith said. “Training is still on the incline right now and we will be tapering off after the Conference Championships later this month.”

The Tigers currently rank No. 5 in the CCCAA college rankings.

RCC will compete next at the Mount San Antonio Invite at Walnut Oct. 17 at 10 a.m.