SANTA ANA, Calif. – Giovanni Barajas impressed with a fifth-place individual finish against some of the best runners in the state at the Golden West Invite on Friday morning. Barajas clocked in with a time of 21:26.1 to help lead the Santa Ana men to third place overall.
Servando Aviles (21:43.0), Dalton Aviles (21:53.6) and Octavio Moreno (22:26.6) all had solid times, placing in the top 27 out of 155 runners.
As a team, the Dons averaged a time of 22:07, scoring just five points behind second place Riverside with 90 points.
Santa Ana's women's team had a good showing as well, coming in sixth place with an average time of 22:09.
Maria Marroquin was the first Don across the finish line, taking 12th overall at a time of 20:56.2. Following right behind was Lucero Torres Calderon, coming in 19th place at 21:16.4. Melissa Aguirre (22:04.8), Monique Azpeitia (22:41.2), Jacqueline Sanchez (23:46.6) and Maria Lopez (25:51.7) rounded out the group of Dons.
Santa Ana's cross country teams will prepare to host the annual Brubaker Invitational on October 5th at Irvine Regional Park.