The Santa Barbara City College cross country men’s team had an inconsistent day while the women’s team, led by Paige Colijn’s 44th-place effort, finished 14th with one of its top runners out of the lineup on a picture-postcard Saturday at the SBCC Invitational.
Riverside took the men’s title with 52 points while Sequoias was second at 77 in the 20-team field. SBCC was 16th with 441 points. The 4-mile race started on the sand at Leadbetter Beach and finished at Shoreline Park.
David Sanchez of Sequoias was the men’s champion in 22:10. SBCC was led by Conner Mellon’s season-best 23:51, good for 58th place, and Wesley Korpela’s 25:51, which placed him 90th.
“It was a mixed bag for the men,” Vaquero coach Scott Fickerson said. “Our top three ran well, but Chris (Costanza) had an off day. Everyone needs to come together and have a good race on the same day. On the plus side, we beat Hancock after losing to them at the WSC Preview meet.”
In the women’s race, Orange Coast won the title by edging Glendale 45-54. SBCC was 14th out of 17 scoring teams with 376 points. Crystal Reed of Orange Coast was the individual champ, covering the 3-mile course in 18:20.
Colijn took 44th in 21:00 with teammate Ivana Sanchez in 88th at 22:43 and Sarah Gustavsson 99th in 22:58.
“Our women ran well, but we had a big gap between No. 5 and 6 because we were missing one of our top five runners,” Fickerson said.
SBCC returns to action Oct. 28 in the WSC Championships at Waller Park in Santa Maria. The top seven men’s and women’s teams will move on to the Southern Cal Championships on Nov. 7 in Bakersfield.
Dave Loveton is Santa Barbara City College‘s sports information specialist.