Three Vaqueros from the SBCC men’s cross country team toed the line at the Southern California Preview meet in Bakersfield on Friday at Kern County Soccer Park.
The primary mission that head coach Scott Fickerson set for the men was to learn the course on which they will race for a qualifying position to the CCCAA Championships race in six weeks. The next goal was to execute a smart race.
The Vaqueros were racing tired after a hard week of training, so the overall expectations were low, but they came through with strong performances, with both Samuel Buenaventura and Alejandro Rosillo notching top-10 marks for this course by SBCC runners.
Buenaventura placed 71st out of 247 finishers running 22:38 for the 4-mile course. This places him 8th all-time for SBCC on the course. Rosillo was close behind, running 22:51 in 77th place. His mark was No. 10 all-time at SBCC.
Bennett Christensen was the third finisher for the Vaqueros, running 25:35 in 188th place.
“The men put in good hard efforts today,” said Coach Fickerson. “They learned the course and were able to put together a solid race plan. This reconnaissance mission will be valuable for them at the So Cal Championships as we will have to race much faster to punch a ticket to Fresno for the State Championships.”
Santa Barbara’s next competition will be the WSC Preview Meet at Pierce College on Friday.
Michael Jorgenson works in communications/media relations at Santa Barbara City College.
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