Hartnell Women Place 5th at State as Freshmen Deliver Career-Best Performances

For the Hartnell College's young women's cross country squad, the 3C2A State Cross Country Championship at Woodward Park in Fresno was hopefully a preview of future success. With five of the top seven returning, the only question remaining from the final race of the season was how high would the young Panthers place. Thanks to four course personal bests, the Panthers secured a solid fifth place team finish with 217 points.

Freshman Gabriela Cardenas finished as the top Panther as she had done in every previous race this season. Cardenas flirted with an All-American performance to cap her stellar first year by placing seventeenth overall. Her time of 18:49 was a course personal best by 18 seconds from two weeks ago at the Northern California Championship and was seventh best for true freshmen. The Rancho San Juan High School graduate now moves to eighth fastest all-time in Hartnell College history. Freshman Crystal Madrigal placed 37th in 19:39 in her first state championship. Fellow frosh Deisy Gracia Gabriel lowered her best by 53 seconds and broke 20 minutes for the first time all season with her 19:52. Jenna Partida was next at 20:16 with teammate Angelina Tran at 20:44. Alexa Flores (20:47) and Karen Perez (21:23) rounded out the squad. 

This year's accomplishments included team victories at the Tour de Cuesta and Tri-State Challenge along with a Norcal Championship runner-up finish.