SANTA ANA, Calif. – The 2018 Santa Ana Cross Country teams started their seasons with the Vanguard Invitational on Saturday, September 8th at Irvine Park.
Both teams placed fourth overall while competing against universities such as Vanguard, Concordia Irvine, Hope International, Whittier Christian and San Diego Christian.
Santa Ana's men were led by Servando Aviles, who placed eighth overall with a time of 27:37. Just a hair behind him was Giovanni Barajas, clocking in a 27:38 to take ninth. The team was filled out by Dalton Aviles (29:12), Octavio Moreno (29:27), Daniel Gonzalez (29:30), Dante Perez (33:37) and Sergio Rodriguez-Martinez (34:47) and combined for a 28:41.35 average time in the 8K race.
Maria Marroquin posted the fastest time for the women at 20:36 in the 5K, good for an 11th place finish. Lucero Torres Calderon followed her with a time of 21:35 for 16th place. Monique Azpeitia (22:51), Melissa Aguirre (23:33), Jacqueline Sanchez (24:39) and Maria Lopez (25:52) also raced for the Dons, helping them to an average time of 22:39.48.
Next for the Dons is the Sothern California Preview on Friday, September 14th at Cerritos Regional Park starting at 10:00 a.m.