The San Diego Mesa men's cross country team captured the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) state championship on Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno. The top five harriers were named All-American following the meet.
Stefan Rasmussen led a dominating group, finishing second overall with a time of 20:15.0 on the 4-mile trek. Right on his heels was Isaiah Labra, who finished third with a time of 20:30.4. Mesa had three more finishers in the top-13 as Christian Alcantar was seventh (20:44.9), Bobby Brana 12th (20:54.8) and Medhane Woldu 13th (20:56.1). As a result of finishing in the top 14 in the race, all five are considered All-America runners.
"As a coach, you want your team at the end of the season to execute and run to their ability level and that's exactly what they did today," head coach Sean Ricketts said. "They followed the plan. Our goal was to have five runners in the top 15 and to win state. And they're champions. That's what we've been training for the last two years. This group is pretty much all sophomores, so since they were freshmen we've instilled 'if you want to be a champion, everything you do has to be like a champion,'"
The Mesa overall team time of 1:43:20 was the fastest time in school history.
CONGRATS OLYMPIANS!