Coyotes advance 2 cross ccountry teams

By Nick Pellegrino
Updated: November 14, 2023

2023 COMMUNITY COLLEGE CROSS COUNTRY — MEN & WOMEN

Courtesy, Cuyamaca College media relations

LONG BEACH – Both Cuyamaca College Men’s and Women’s Cross-Country teams have qualified to compete in the 2023 3C2A State Championships. On November 18th, they will be traveling to Woodward Park in Fresno to compete. FULL STORY

The 2023 Southern California Regional Championships were hosted by Long Beach City College, at El Dorado Park. Forty-one SoCal teams were represented at the event with perfect conditions and a thoughtful yet challenging course laid out by the host.

The Lady Coyotes came into the SoCal regionals ranked fourteenth and fresh off their second-place conference win. The mostly freshman crew of runners was led by Daycia Fielden who started off clocking her first mile in 6:04.4, in forty-fifth. At mile two, Daycia had passed several runners and moved up to twenty-fifth place out of the one hundred and sixty runners. Daycia was the first Lady Coyote to cross the finish line of the 5k race in 19:24.4.

Coyotes Mwamini Shabani and Maua Mloko were next to complete the run in forty-eight and fifty-fourth, both running under the 21:00 minute mark. Daisy Tamayo finished in seventy-second, only thirty seconds behind her teammates Shaabani and Mloko. Their final team scorer was track star Viviana Cuadras, who finished in one-hundredth fourth place overall, clocking a time of twenty-three minutes, sixteen seconds point eight (23:16.8). Reese Ford, who has struggled all season with lower leg injuries, soldiered through the race and delivered a season best 25:56.0 finishing in one hundredth thirty-ninth.

The Cuyamaca Women’s XC team finished in eight place of the thirty-five teams that took the starting line.

Thirty-two men’s teams totaling one hundred and eighty-nine athletes lined up for the four-mile run that would qualify the top sixteen teams and thirty-two individuals (not part of a team that finished in the top 50 percentile of all runners).

Cuyamaca’s Steven Valadez crossed the finish line in twenty-sixth place of all athletes, setting a blistering 5:00 mile pace in the first mile. Steven finished with a time of 20:28.1 minutes for 4-miles. Juan Arredondo finished in fortieth, followed by Paolo Katanchi and Dominic Rizzo in forty-third and forty-fourth respectively. The final team scorer, Angel Juarez, crossed the line :30 second behind his teammates in sixty-eighth place. Cuyamaca’s two displacers (scores that push other teams back in points), Elijah Jordan and Ian Prunty, finished seventy-seventh and one hundred fourteenth.

The Cuyamaca Men’s XC team scored two hundred and twenty points and finished seventh overall.

2023 3C2A State Championships will take place on November 18th, in Woodward Park in Fresno. The Women’s 5k race is scheduled for 10:00am with the Men’s 4-mile race scheduled for 11:00am.