SAN DIEGO, CA (10/6/2022) -- San Diego Mesa College and San Diego City College have been cruising through their season and are ready to take on the Manny Bautista Cross Country Invite on Friday hosted by SD Mesa at NTC Park.

Last weekend the SD Mesa women competed at the Michael Johnson Classic in Monmouth, Oregon. They finished in fourth place with two runners finishing in the top 15.  In the women's 6K, Mohussin Abakan finished in 11th place at 22:49.5 and Kyana Cook 13th with 23:06.7.

San Diego City College hosted its annual SD City Coach Downey Classic last week. 

In their second race of the season, the Knights had four runners finish in the top 25, including Deandra Jara who came in fourth overall, to help them earn second place. 

Jara, who was City's top runner at the San Diego XC Kickoff on September 2, was also the fastest Knight at Friday's meet, held at Morley Field. She ran the 5k course in 21:08.2 with an average mile of 6:48.2, which is a :46-second improvement over her first race.

Jackeline Reyes was the next Knight to cross the finish line in 12th place with a time of 23:04.8. She also took made a big improvement from the first meet, cutting :39 seconds off her average mile.

Nihal Samaha made a major improvement as she cut 1:35 from her average mile to complete the course in 22nd place with a time of 26:10.4.

Running in her first meet of the year, Joscelyn Silva was not too far behind Samaha with a time of 26:29.5 for 24th place.

Also running in their first race of the season, Ornella Spinelli (31:50.1, 35th), Ailynn Renteria (32:31.8, 37th), and Selena Garcia (34:55.8, 40th) rounded out the top seven for the Knights.

(San Diego Mesa Athletics/San Diego City Athletics)