Women's Cross Country Advances to 3C2A State Meet after Fifth Place Finish at SoCal

LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Allan Hancock College women's cross country team is continuing to build on an already historic season after a solid team performance at the 2023 Southern California Regional Championship, which took place at El Dorado Park in Long Beach on Friday morning. The top 16 teams from the SoCal event and eight teams from the NorCal Regional Championship automatically qualified for the state meet. | RESULTS

The Bulldogs claimed fifth place through the field of 32 programs with a final score of 176, narrowly being edged by Glendale who totaled 170. San Diego Mesa won the meet, followed by Mt. San Antonio and Riverside.

The 5K event saw 160 individual racers take off at the starting line. Itandehui Olea led the way for the program with an 8th place finish with a time of 18:35.7. Eva Luu (18:50.6) and Maraitzel Moreno Gutierrez (19:48.6) followed after placing 18th and 39th, respectively. Makayla Gonzalez (69th / 21:09.9), Jasmine Cruz (70th / 21:12.9), and Annais Vega (74th, 21:22.1) also earned top-100 finishes. Rosalie Nicolas (25:13.3) rounded out the AHC performers with a 132nd place mark. 

This marks the first team appearance at the state meet, on record, for the women's program since 1992. It is also the first appearance of any Hancock athlete for the women's team at the state meet since Ariana Fabing qualified as an individual back in 2008.

The Bulldogs will compete at the 3C2A State Championship on Saturday, November 18th. The meet will be held at Woodward Park in Fresno.