Edith Noriega| Sports Editor
Sept. 19, 2014
Women’s cross-country
Tigers cross-country raced to the finish line completing third among community colleges and posed a 20th place finish at the 34th Annual UC Riverside Invitational Saturday Sept. 13.
“The ladies ran well as a team,” said head coach Damien Smith. “I was excited to see the ladies work on pack running, especially in our first meet of the year, this is something we have been working on and is very important in being successful in cross-country.”
The Tigers had five of their seven freshman finish in the Top 10 of their first collegiate meet.
Freshman Brianna Jacklin led the way with a fourth place finish at a time of 18:52, sophomore Isi Ibarra placed fifth with a time of 18:55, Halina Carrera placed seventh, Crystal Tejeda placed ninth Halina Carrera placing seventh with a time of 19:49, Crystal Tejeda placed ninth and Maria Morales placing 12 overall.
Men’s cross-country
RCC mens cross-country finished thirteenth among 29 teams at the 34 Annual UC Riverside Invitational and a strong second (62 points) place out of 12 teams falling short to South Western College (35 points) at their first met at the Rio Honda classic on Sept. 5.
Freshman Willie Raus led the pack at the Rio Honda classic finishing on top with a third place finish with 103 other runners. Raus pace per mile was 4:58 and his overall time was a 19:53 for 4 miles.
“Raus really showed that he wants to be one of the top distance runners in the state this season,” said head coach Jim McCarron. “He is a hard worker and he knows that he is only going to improve, he has a bright future in cross country and track and field.”
Raus had a foot injury last week and was held out of the UC Riverside Invitational meet to let him heal, according to McCarron.
The Tigers second finisher was Doug Negrete who finished No. 13 overall and was followed by Dennis Gonzalez and Julio Martinez 15th and Hector Ruiz 17th to round out the top five.
“The team is improving weekly and we are always working on getting better each day, training is going well and this team is still figuring out how good it can be,” said McCarron.
