Cerritos, CA. |
Armando Lozano continued his rapid ascension in the cross country ranks on Friday at the Southern California Preview Meet as the sophomore finished 29th in a field of over 300 runners and 35 schools that featured multiple All-Americans to help West LA College finish 15th as a team with 442 points.
The men's side at Don Knabe Regional Park Cross Country course (site of the 2018 SoCal Championships on November 2) featured all but 2 schools in the top 15 in Southern California's September 10th rankings with No. 2 El Camino, No. 3 Glendale, No. 4 Riverside, No. 5 Harbor, No. 5 San Bernardino Valley, No. 5 San Diego Mesa, No. 9 Cerritos, No. 10 Oxnard, No. 11 Orange Coast, No. 11 West Los Angeles, No. 13 Saddleback, and No. 14 Victor Valley all in attendance. This was West LA's 1st appearance in the rankings since 2016.
Lozano was the Wildcats top finisher for the 1st time. His time of 21:05 for 4 miles averages right at 5:16 per mile and was a personal best. Baltazar Bucup had a top 50 finish with a season-best time of 21:18. Freshman, Raul Lopez had his second-straight solid performance as he clocked a personal best time of 22:20. Nathan Torres also had a PR, and his highest team finish this season placing 4th for West LA clocking 23:14.
For the women, Maya Richardson was West LA's top finisher with a 135th-place showing.
No. 2 El Camino had to be separated by team time after tying No. 5 San Diego Mesa for the team title in the men's race with 90 points and No. 1 Glendale captured the women's race with 77 points over No. 4 Saddleback with 82 points.
Local rival's Santa Monica and East LA finished 23rd and 24th in the team standings. West LA will return to action next week at the Golden West Invitational.
