Gaucho women 8th at SoCal Finals
The Saddleback women's cross country team finished eighth at the Southern California Regional Finals at Mission Bay on Friday. It was the best finish at the SoCal Finals since 2008 and qualified the team for the state finals in Fresno on November 20.
Saddleback is starting to peak at the right time and hitting their stride right when you want. The eighth place finish was the third best finish at the Southern California Finals in the 37-year history of the program.
Freshman Angel Vallier led the way, finishing 44th overall and 42nd among runners participating with a team. She covered the 5k course in 20:25.38, finishing just 30 seconds out of a top-25 finish.
Vallier was followed closely by freshman Caroline Dagarin, who was 47th with a time of 20:31.08. Freshman Rachel Oberschelp was 63rd, sophomore Kimberly Jovanus 67th and freshman Andrea Loyola 78th as Saddleback finished with a team score of 297.
Saddleback was among three Orange Empire Conference programs to finish in the top eight as Riverside ran fifth and Orange Coast seventh.
Saddleback will run at the state finals on November 20 in Fresno.