The men won the four-mile race in style, scoring 20 points and defeating Mesa Community College's 35 points and Phoenix College's 85 (low score wins). The Pumas placed all five scoring runners between MCC's number one and number two runners. Leading the charge for PVCC were sophomore Gilbert Olivas and freshman Jonathan Barney, who tied for 2nd place in a time of 21:14. Following that duo were freshman Nathan Pestka in 4th (21:16), freshman Chaz Miller in 5th (21:35), and freshman Jason Lundgren in 6th (21:40). Rounding out the top-seven for PV were sophomores Pierce Vittone in 11th (22:14), and Jake Stein in 12th (22:25). Other finishers for PVCC were freshmen Isaac Reynolds, 14th (22:38), Caleb Villegas, 15th (23:01), and sophomore Cesar Fonseca, 19th (23:57). Sophomore Yotuel Garcia of MCC won the race in 20:50.
The women's team had a great showing in spite of starting only four runners. "We didn't run a couple of our women today, but the ones that ran did really well," said Barney. The Puma women were led by freshman Jazmin Estrada's strong third-place finish. Estrada clocked 19:45 over the three-mile course. She was followed by freshmen Ani LeSueur in 6th (20:58) and Aspen LeSueur in 8th (21:10). Capping off for the Puma's was freshman Saree Ochoa who finished 14th overall in a time of 32:21. MCC won the women's team race, scoring 15 points (neither PVCC nor Phoenix College scored as a team- you must finish five runners to score), and sophomore Kate Brockman of MCC won the individual title in 18:45.
The Puma's next competition will be at the Mesa Jamboree XC Invitational on Saturday, October 1 at the Mesa Community College campus. (Scheduled start times: Women 8:30 a.m., Men 9:10 a.m.)
