Fresno, CA (Cross Country) -- The 2009 Citrus College Cross Country season came to a close on Saturday afternoon as the Citrus College Women’s Cross Country team participated in the 2009 CCCAA State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.
In what was a tightly contested race in the middle of the pack (just five seconds separated 5th place from 22nd place in the total team time categories), the Lady Owls would finish in 20th place out of the 26 participating teams with a team time of 1 hour 45 minutes and 36 seconds.
Sophomore Vanessa Esquivel closed out her Citrus College career by saving her best race for her last race. Esquivel’s time of 19:31.44 was her best time in two years for Citrus, earning her 38th place out of the almost 200 individual participating runners. Esquivel’s finish was the best State Championship finish for any Lady Owl in recent memory.
Also turning in a strong performance was freshman Melissa Granados. Granados ran the course in a time of 20:03.07 good for a 65th place finish. Finishing just outside the top 100 was the final member of Citrus’ strong trio, Cynthia Acedo. Acedo came across the finish line with a season best time of 20:44.23 and a 108th place finish.
Rounding out the Citrus scores in the final race of the year were Crystal Moreno (20:58.12, 124th place), Carolina Villagomez (24:19.41, 194th place), and Alexis Aguilar (24:20.82, 195th place). All three came up big for the Lady Owls. For Moreno and Aguilar it was their best times of the year, while Villagomez posted her second best time of the year.
2009 CCCAA State Championships Results