Hartnell Women Challenge State’s Best at Inaugural Pink in the Park

On Friday, the Hartnell College cross country teams welcome sixteen other two year programs to the first ever Pink in the Park, formerly known as the Toro Park Invitational. The pink-themed event was designed to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness to community college student-athletes. The event was not just highlighted by teams wearing pink but also by outstanding individual and team performances by the Panthers.

In the women's 3 mile race, freshman Gabriela Cardenas showed tremendous improvement by finishing fifth overall in 18:58. That mark moves Cardenas into the fifth fastest ever for a Hartnell woman and she will get one more shot to move up at the Coast Conference Championship at Toro Park on October 29th. Another three freshmen would all cross the finish line close together with Deisy Gracida-Gabriel (20:07) in fifteenth place, Crystal Madrigal (20:31) in twentieth, and Alexa Flores (20:44) in twenty fourth place. Sophomore Yareli Meza would finish in 26th in a lifetime best 20:51 to complete the team scoring. In a very tight team battle, #1 State ranked San Diego Mesa was able to claw back to the top spot over the final one kilometer after watching host Hartnell College lead most of the race. The Panther women did best Norcal #1 Clovis Community College by 10 points. Freshman Jenna Partida (20:57) and sophomore Janai Orozco (21:15) rounded out the top seven.