SBCC Men's Cross Country Qualifies for State Championships

The day of the So Cal Regionals dawned cool and crisp in Bakersfield on Friday, November 4th. Temperatures in the high 30's greeted the teams as they arrived at the Kern County Soccer park for the second time this season. 28 teams and as many as 15 individuals had qualified out of their conference championship races for the opportunity to toe the line at the CCCAA State Championships in 2 weeks time. By race time, the day had emerged sunny with temperatures right around 50 degrees; perfect cross country racing temps!

 

SBCC's Alex Rosillo and Sam Buenaventura were the top 2 individual qualifiers out of the deep Western State Conference and ran confident of their ability to qualify on to the State Championships. But thinking about and doing are two separate things and thus they toed the line on the far outside of the 195 man field ready to earn their spots. 

 

Both runners ran strongly down the opening 600m stretch across multiple manicured soccer fields and were positioned well as they headed out onto the course proper hovering in the top 1/4 of the field. While the two teammates didn't run together, they were never far apart. Rosillo led Buenaventura throughout, who could regularly see his teammate up ahead of him. Both runners passed the slightly uphill mile in just under 5:15 before settling in on the 2nd and 3rd miles into positions in the mid 60's and low 70's. Both in qualifying positions, but without much room for error. Both runners ran strongly on the final hilly mile of the course, with Alex crossing the line in 62nd place at 21:29 and Sam storming down the finish 11 spots and 19 seconds later to finish 73rd in 21:48. Both placed high enough to earn their spot as individuals on the line at State. Their times place them 3rd and 4th all-time for SBCC runners on the Bakersfield Course and were season best marks for both. 

 

The CCCAA State Championships will be held at Woodward Park, Fresno on Saturday, November 19th.