Riverside Claims Second Straight Championship
Riverside City College grabbed another trophy after winning the SoCal Championship on Friday. The Tigers – who came into the meet ranked eighth – finished with 79 points to beat out Cerritos College (98) and Cuyamaca College (121), which took second and third, respectively.
RCC paced itself and held back for the first two miles before making a charge in the last two miles. The Tigers moved into fourth at the 1.5-mile split before overtaking third with one mile to go. It came down to the final push, where Riverside dug deep to come away with the title.
"All of our guys got better from the first time they ran here at the SoCal Preview," said Coach Jim McCarron. "They all ran off the race plan and put together a great race."
Alex Wesolowski led RCC with a time of 20 minutes, 29.5 seconds to take sixth place. Joshua West also finished in the top 10, taking ninth overall with a time of 20:36.2.
Luis Mier put in a big kick at the end to post a time of 20:44.0 to take 14th, beating out the 15th place runner by .3 seconds. Dyeem Tolbert also grabbed a top 20 time, crossing the finish line in 20:52.8 and beating out the runner on his tail by just .1 seconds.
Anthony Silva finished in 21:13.2 to take 33rd, while Martin Sandoval was four spots behind his teammate in 21:19.0 – putting in a kick to beat a Cuyamaca runner by .6 seconds. Angel Gomez rounded out the scorers for the Tigers after crossing the finish line in 21:32.4.
The State Championship takes place Nov. 22 at Woodward Park in Fresno, Calif.