ELAC Men's Cross Country Gets Best Time in Two Years

REDLANDS, Calif. — The East Los Angeles College men’s cross country team opened the season with their best results in two years at the Redlands Invitational at the University of Redlands.

ELAC finished with an average time of 22 minutes and 55 seconds per man, their best results since the Huskies finished with an average time of 22:54.51 at the San Bernardino Valley College Invitational October 7, 2016.

Cal Poly Pomona won the Invitational’s 6k race with an average time of 19:20. The Huskies placed seventh in the meet, which was against mostly four-year university competition.

“It is a great finish in our first meet, which was the first competition at the college level for most of the team,” said ELAC Head Coach Kathryn Kelly. “They have been putting in the work and many ran faster than projected. Their times set the standard from where we want to go.”

Freshman Daniel Morales (Bravo Medical Magnet School) finished sixth against community college men in 20:14.9, one of the fastest times for a Husky in some years. Morales had a speedlight sprint and edged Redlands senior Benjamin Casey at the finish line by 1.5 seconds.

Sophomore Allen Yeung (San Gabriel HS) ran a personal record of 22:07.01. It was faster than his previous best time as a freshman, which was during the 2016 season. Yeung took a year off his studies to serve in the United States Marine Corps.

He graduated from Boot Camp October 2, 2017. “During that time, I was going through MCT (Marine Combat Training) and MOS (Military Occupational Specialty School) where I learned to become a Radio Operator,” said Yeung. “(I’m) currently serving as a reservist down at Naval Weapons Station.”

Freshman Justin Frias (Arroyo HS) finished in the Top-20 against community college competition with a time of 23:06.5.

Sophomore Joshua Cardenas ran a personal record of 24:34.4 more than five minutes off his best time as a freshman. He finished less than a second ahead teammate freshman Isaac Alegandrealbizures (Bell HS). Non-scoring Huskies included three freshmen, Arturo Fernandez (Applied Technology Center HS) in 25:03.5 followed by Daniel Garcia (Bell Gardens HS) who finished in 25:55.5 and Efren Machorro in 25:56.1.

The Huskies next compete in the Southern California Cross Country Preview Meet at Don Knabe Regional Park (19700 Bloomfield Ave., Cerritos, CA 90703) Friday, Sept. 14th, 2018. It is one of the largest meets in the state with more than 500 competitors.

The ELAC women’s cross country team will compete in the 5k race at 10:00 a.m. and the men’s team competes in the 4-mile competition at 11:00 a.m.

Follow ELAC Athletics at http://athletics.elac.edu/landing/index or on Facebook at ELAC Huskies Athletics (@elachuskiesathletics

submitted by Tadzio Garcia