San Bernardino Valley captures PCAC title

San Bernardino Valley captures PCAC title

The San Bernardino Valley women's cross country team captured the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference title on Saturday in San Bernardino.  The Wolverines were led by freshman Alissa Johnson, who won the individual title.

San Bernardino Valley was looking to build on a second place finish a season ago when they went on to finish 16th at the state finals.  The Wolverines accomplished their goal by winning the conference title on Saturday and will now turn their sites to the Southern California Regional Finals in two weeks with the state finals to follow.

Johnson was a dominating force on Saturday on the 5-k trek in San Bernardino.  The freshman crossed the finish line in 18:57.0, winning by over 30 seconds.  She wasn't alone for San Bernardino Valley as the Wolverines had five harriers finish in the top 11 in the field.  A trio of sophomore runners finished 5-6-7 as Alyssa Benavides (20:10.1), Brandy Ayala (20:10.7) and Darilyn Hernandez (20:16.6) all picked up crucial points.  Freshman Jessica Aguilera finished in 11th place overall in a time of 20:41.6.

Palomar was the closest competitor in the team competition as the Comets had five runners finish in the top-20.  Maia Chaffin led Palomar with an eighth place finish when she crossed the finish line in 20:19.1.  The Comets that had a flurry of runners finish in the teens as Hannah Lopez finished 12th in the team competition (20:46.8), Cassandra Ramos was 13th (20:56.2) and Jolie Beentjes was 18th (22:05.4) Lessli Maldonado finished in 20th place in a time of 22:11.1.

Other top-10 finishers at the race on Saturday were Imperial Valley's Sabrina Benavides (2), Cuyamaca's Courtney Clifford (3), San Diego City's Dafne Perez, Desert's Jasmin Gallegos (9) and San Diego City's Cesia Hernandez (10).

The Southern California Regional Finals will be held at Don Knabe Regional Park in Cerritos on November 2. 

PCAC FINALS MEET RESULTS

Team scores

Place Team Score
1 San Bernadino Valley 30
2 Palomar 71
3 Imperial Valley 93
4 San Diego City 99
5 Cuyamaca 111
6 Desert 130