Community College Cross-Country : Orange Coast Just Keeps Winning : Pirate Men and Women Sweep the Orange Empire Final

Orange Coast College completed its cross-country dominance of the Orange Empire Conference Friday by sweeping the men’s and women’s conference finals in Irvine Park at Orange.

The Pirates’ teams also won the dual-meet season with 5-0 records.

OCC sophomore Dave Parcel won the men’s four-mile race in a time of 19 minutes 52 seconds. The Pirates, who had 31 points, were followed by Rancho Santiago (44), Citrus (74), Saddleback (93) and Riverside (165). Cypress didn’t have the required five runners to qualify.

Rancho Santiago’s Ramon Lopez (20:18) was second. OCC’s Callin Kenji (20:23) was third, Sal Alcaraz (20:25) fourth and his brother Jose (20:30) sixth.

OCC and Rancho Santiago advance to the Southern California Regionals, which will be held Nov. 7 in Guajome Park at Vista. The top five teams in the regionals advance to the Nov. 15 state meet at Fresno.

The Pirates won the women’s division with 18 points, taking eight of the first nine spots, and were followed by Saddleback (57), Cypress (103), Citrus (107) and Rancho Santiago (110). Riverside didn’t have enough runners to qualify as a team.

Harolene Walters of OCC won the three-mile race with a time of 18 minutes. Teammate Luis Curl (18:20) was second. Saddleback’s Dierdre Vaughan (18:43) was third and the next six spots belonged to OCC.

Debbie Lies (18:52) was fourth, Delinda Patino (18:53) fifth, Julie Yost (18:55) sixth, Tracy Wright (19:05) seventh, Deanna Feser (19:15) eighth and Roxanne Chavez (19:16) ninth.

OCC and Saddleback qualified for the regionals.

In the South Coast Conference finals:

Six Mt. San Antonio runners were among the top 10 finishers as the undefeated Mounties won the men’s cross-country final in Central Park at Huntington Beach.

Mt. San Antonio, which was 7-0 in the regular season, finished first with 21 points, followed by El Camino with 56. Both qualify for the regionals.

Long Beach City finished third with 86, Pasadena City was fourth (124), Fullerton fifth (129), Cerritos sixth (132) and Golden West seventh (177). Compton did not have five runners finish the 3.9-mile course.

In the women’s final, El Camino, 6-1 in the regular season, finished first with 44 points to upset previously unbeaten Mt. San Antonio. But both qualify for the regionals.