Women runners send two to state

MISSION BAY, CA — The Huskies women’s cross country team did not qualify for the CCCAA State Championships, but individually sophomore Viridiana Hernandez (South Gate HS) and freshman Rosa Arellano (Schurr HS) did.

ELAC took 20th place at the SoCal finals today, two spots short of a bid to the state finals.

Hernandez, who was the fastest Husky in each race this season, improved her SoCal Preview time, by 58.8 seconds to qualify for state. The SoCal Preview was the first race of the season on the same course.

Arellano improved her SoCal Preview time by 48.4 seconds faster to move on. Arellano began the season as ELAC’s No. 2 runner, slipped to No. 3 all season, but peaked at the right time of the season and ended the season as No. 2.

The strategy to advance to state according to the coaches was for the slower runners to improve their times from the SoCal Preview. They all did, however, the middle ELAC runners did not.

Improving on their times in their final race of the season were freshman Gabrielle Trenado (Schurr HS), freshman Jazmin Ortiz (Alhambra HS) and sophomore Maybell Sanchez (Alhambra HS).

Sophomores Luz Badillo (Alhambra HS) and Melissa Preciado (Bell Gardens HS) ended their cross country careers at ELAC. They both compete as long distance runners on the track and field team next semester.

“They did not warm up properly, which is critical to running a successful 5k race, so that they won’t have oxygen debt early in the race,” said ELAC Assistant Coach David Loera.

ELAC, which had an incredible run to qualify for SoCal by defeating both Long Beach City Pasadena City colleges last week, defeated them again at SoCal.

Glendale Community College easily won the women’s team title.

The state finals will be held at the Woodard Park in Fresno on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 11 a.m.

story submitted by Tadzio Garcia