San Dimas, CA - The Wildcat men's and women's cross country teams competed at the Western State Conference Championships today on a hot and dry Friday afternoon at Bonelli Park – hosted by Citrus College. The men's squad posted a seventh place finish, while the women took home tenth-place. Each program improved upon last season's finish.

West LA was led by sophomore Baltazar Bucup who finished 4th overall.  Bucup raced through the hilly 4-mile course in a speedy time of 21:17 with an average mile pace of 5:19. Trailing him was freshman Raul Lopez who placed 21^st for the Wildcats.  On the men's side 9 points separated 4 teams placing between 4^th and 7^th with West LA coming up short.  The day was a success though after qualifying for the Southern California Championships after not qualifying last year.  The men beat rivals Santa Monica and College of the Canyons as they wore their new "Gold" jerseys for the first time in 2018.  In order to wear Gold uniforms at West LA College, the team's GPA from the previous school year must be 3.0 or higher. The cross country team had the top GPA of any men's program in the 2017-18 school year.   

On the women's side, Maya Richardson paced the Lady Wildcats, coming in 18^th place with a time of 20:55.  The ladies were 10^th as a team in the highly competitive conference that carries 15 teams.  The WSC is not only the biggest in the state, but the top conference with 3 of the top 6 teams in the state.  Richardson earned a trip to the SoCal Championships individually as the top individual finisher on a non-qualifying team. 

West Los Angeles College will take next weekend off before the SoCal Championships on November 2 at Don Knabe Regional Park in Cerritos at 10am.