Sanchez, Lopez Lead Dons at Golden West Invite

Paulino Sanchez (left) finished third overall while Toni Lopez (right) finished fourth overall as the men's and women's cross country teams competed at the Golden West Invitational.
Paulino Sanchez (left) finished third overall while Toni Lopez (right) finished fourth overall as the men's and women's cross country teams competed at the Golden West Invitational.

HUNTINGTON BEACH - The Dons turned in another pair of impressive performances, this time at the Golden West Invitational held at Central Park in Huntington Beach. Paulino Sanchez led the way for the men's team as he finished third overall while Toni Lopez was the top women's runner for SAC with a fourth place finish. As a team, the men finished fifth out of 16 teams while the women finished sixth out of 13 teams.

Sanchez represented the second runner out of the Orange Empire Conference with just a Saddleback College runner in front of him. Following Sanchez was Ramiro Santos in 22nd place and Edwin Ortiz-Lopez in 28th place while Geovany Garcia and Brian Ambrocio weren't far behind in 36th and 38th place, respectively. Rounding out the men's runners was Adrian Hernandez in 67th place.

As a team, the Dons fifth-place finish came behind Riverside City College in first, College of the Canyons in second, Saddleback College in third and Glendale College in fourth.

For the women, Lopez was the first runner from the Orange Empire Conference to cross the finish line with her fourth-place finish. Ana Diaz was the next Don across the line in 32nd place with Liz Luciano and Angie Gomez following in 45th and 49th place. The final scorer for SAC was Maria Baeza in 55th place. Also running was Lizzy Luciano who finished 59th and Jazlyn Madrid who finished 65th.

Just outside the top-five, the Dons finished as a team behind first-place Glendale, second-place Canyons, third-place Cerritos College, fourth-place Riverside and fifth-place Saddleback.