Hartnell Women Second at Historic Mt. SAC Invitational
After a long seven hour bus ride south to Walnut, a final hot weekend in Southern California, and a second place team finish at the 2021 Mt. SAC Invitational, it truly felt like a full return to normal competition for the Hartnell College women's cross country team. After a three years away from the historic course, this year's squad proved they are ready to compete on all courses after the final regular season competition. Competing against the top ranked squad and meet host. Mt. SAC, the Panthers came within nine points of pulling off the upset but move forward with the championship portion of their season with boosted confidence.
Freshman Sofia Camacho placed third overall in her first run on the famed course that includes hills named "Switchbacks", "Poop-Out", and "Reservoir". She finished in 19:20 just four seconds ahead of teammate Valeria Lozano-Gomez in fourth. Andrea Villegas brought experience on the course from high school and it helped her to a tenth place finish in 20:05. Freshman Ashley Ochoa enjoyed her best race of the season placing eleventh in 20:08. CSUMB transfer Jazmin Mora just missed out on a top 14 medal placing a solid fifteenth in 20:28. MPC transfer Daniela Ramirez also enjoyed her best outing of her Panther career placing seventeenth in 20:42. Mariah Changco rounded out the top seven in eighteenth (20:46).
As a team the Panthers scored 40 points to host school Mt. SAC with 31 points. State ranked seventh College of the Canyons was third with 91 points. The top two teams in the state will face each other for the 2021 CCCAA State Championship on November 20th at Woodward Park in Fresno.
