Women's Cross Country Improves With Every Stride

The Foothill Invitational at Prado Park was a tough one, but the Lady Corsairs cross country team stepped up and took charge.

The meet on Saturday Sept. 27 in Chino was once again a gathering of many schools ready to compete and unleash the best of what they had prepared.

The course for this session was fairly flat but consisted of chuck holes, tree branches, and soft grass challenging the runners. Eleven teams competed and Santa Monica College finished sixth, a major improvement from the last race.

"This was due in large part to the team having its fastest runner, Angela Perry-Spahn, finally eligible. Angela is our only second-year runner, and her experience paid off well at her first race of the season," said Head Coach Eric Barron.

"She finished first for the team and thirteenth overall with a time of 19:52 for the three-mile meet. We had two more runners break seven-minute pace, Karissa Gonzalez and Dana Johnson. Jessica Pineda ran a strong last mile to be our fourth scorer. Our last scoring runner, Polina Mareninova, bravely ran through but her shin was in pain for much of the race," said Barron.

The winner of the race was Justina Sadauskaite from Glendale, and Glendale Community College placed 1st overall in the competition.

Coach Barron was very pleased with the team results, and mentioned, "I thought our team executed our race plan well. Before the race, we talked about being more aggressive in the opening mile, and our runners did that. Although they let up a bit in the second mile, they all had strong third miles, and it showed in the results."

On Oct. 4 ,the women's cross country team had an invitational in Bakersfield.

"At the Bakersfield Invitational, we had two of our top four runners unable to run because they were out of town, so our team results suffered significantly. It was a large meet with 257 women crossing the finish line. Karissa Gonzalez led our team with a 21:48 result time over a course with medium hills and some difficult footing in dirt near a riverbank. This Friday, we have our first conference meet, at Verdugo Park in Glendale, and we should get a good idea from that meet how the team fits into the conference standings," said Barron.

If any student is interested in watching the women's team run, check them out this Friday Oct. 10 at Verdugo Park in Glendale.