Men's & Women's XC Qualify for SoCal's

The Pirates' men's and women's cross country teams both qualified for the Southern California Championships Friday with solid performances at the Western State Conference Championships at Moorpark. Brianna Richards finished as the conference runner-up to lead the women to a seventh place finish overall while a tightly bunched group of four men's runners behind Henry Fulk helped the men finish seventh as a team, as well.

Richards, who missed the WSC Preview meet last month due to illness, came in second out of 68 competitors, finishing the 5k course in 18:31. Natalie Kreil ran the course in 24:12 to finish 47th and Audrey Cunningham was next nine seconds later. Dulce Quezada came in 53rd in 25:47 while Andrea Rizo ran 66th in 35:03.

The Pirate women totaled 184 points to edge Glendale (185) for the final regional qualifying spot, finishing seventh of the nine competing teams.

Fulk, meanwhile, ran a solid race to lead the men, breaking the tape after four miles in 21:34 to place 20th. Aiden Plew led  four VC runners in six places, running 22:43 to place 38th. Nathan Lopez out-kicked teammate Carmelo Betanzos to finish 39th and 40th, respectively, in 22:48, and Marcelo Mendoza was 43rd, four seconds later. Other Ventura runners included Julian Pachon in 23:43 in 57th place followed by AJ Guerra and Erick Aleman in 74th and 75th in 25:58 and 26:06, respectively. Dillon Rothermel ran 88th in 28:11 and Santiago Gutierrez was 96th in 31:23. A total of 105 runners completed the race.

VC accumulated 175 team points to solidly finish in seventh of 12 competing teams. Canyons was sixth with 135 points while Santa Monica was eighth with 206 points.

Ventura next travels to the Southern California Regional Championships on Friday Nov. 7. The race will be at the Naval Training Center Park in San Diego.