The Fresno City College Cross Country team competed at the Santa Barbara Invitational on Oct. 12. The Rams have run this race for 12 years. The meet brought together 17 schools mostly from South California.
Daniel Guerrero from College of Sequoias finished first place overall in the men’s four mile race while Grace Graham-Zamudio from Glendale finished first in the women’s 5K race.
Freshman Marty Rowell led FCC runners with a 14th place finish. He ran the four miles in 22:46.93. FCC runner Germay Tesfai finished in 19th place with a time of 22:59.70
On the women’s part of the event, FCC sophomore Sandra Navarro finished in 45th place. She finished with a time of 23:55.35.
This event wrapped up the regular season for the team who will battle for the conference championship on Oct. 25 at Woodward Park.
The 2012 season started on Sept. 8 at Woodward Park and has taken the FCC team all around Northern California for meets.
The men came into the Santa Barbara Invitational in fourth place in the standings. They have been trailing College of Sequoia throughout the whole season. And this event was no different as C.O.S. finished in fourth place for the event.
The top runner on the men’s side is Germay Tesfai and the top runners on the women’s side are Megan Gerbrandt and Sandra Navarro.
Coach Bluth hopes that these runners can help lead the team to a conference championship and further.
Germay Tesfai, a sophomore runner for FCC, has been the first Ram across the finish line for the meets at Salinas, and Golden Gate Park. He was also the first overall at the Crystal Springs event with a time of 21 minutes and 25 seconds.
Tesfai, who came in 19th place at Santa Barbara said, “It was not my best race, but it was not my last either.”
“I feel that my performance has been really well this season along with my teammates.” He added, “Despite the bad race I had last week I am confident in progressing with my team.”
The event was hosted by Santa Barbara City College and took place on Leadbetter Beach and Shoreline Park .The Santa Barbara course is composed of various terrains. Runners transition from beach running to grass throughout the race.
“It’s the slowest track because the runners run on sand and soft grass so the times tend to be slower,” said Bluth.
In the following weeks the Rams will compete in their respective Conference championship at Woodward Park where the top two teams advance to the Norcal championship at San Mateo.
Bluth says, “That’s the big thing now, last week doesn’t mean as much. It’s about what’s ahead of us.”
Tesfai is also looking toward the future. He says he sees these upcoming races as “an opportunity for the team to leave a mark that will shock a lot of people.”
