Corben Pagnotta (left), Maria Marroquin (center) and Giovanni Barajas had big days for Santa Ana College Friday. (Photo courtesy Santa Ana College sports information)
Giovanni Barajas hit a personal record with a time of 19:51 to place first for all community college runners at the Cerritos Falcon Invitational on Friday morning.
Barajas joins an elite group of runners in Santa Ana College history to run four miles in under 20 minutes.
“I’m extremely proud of Gio. It has been more than 10 years since we have had a guy run under 20 minutes,” said SAC Coach Miriam Mitzel. “He’s one of the best I’ve seen in my time at SAC and he has a great future ahead of him.”
The sophomore from Garden Grove High has placed in the top three in every race he’s been in during the 2019 season and looks like the favorite to win the Orange Empire Conference championship and will compete for a state title.
“The goal for Gio is to be top three in the state, but I do think he has a chance to win it all.”
Barajas led the pack for SAC men’s team that placed fourth out of 10 teams on Friday.
Corben Pagnotta had the best race of his freshman season with a 10th place finish at 20:43.5 while Francisco Avila (46th / 23:02.0), Eder Diaz (57th / 23:44.8) and Andres Ramirez (65th / 24:02.0) rounded out the SAC team.
Santa Ana had another individual standout as Maria Marroquin also set a personal record on her way to a third place finish with a time of 18:53.5 on the women’s side.
Marroquin was surrounded by a pack of Saddleback runners but found a way to hold her ground, taking her second consecutive third place finish.
The Don women took fourth as a team with 90 points, coming in just four points before College of the Desert, which had 86 points.
Irlanda Hernandez (26th / 21:11.8) and Daisy Tellez (27th / 21:12.9) were the second and third runners to come in for the Dons as they challenged each other right up to the finish line.The final two runners in for SAC were Paula Alvarez (40th / 23:09.9) and Giselle Arenas (43rd / 23:18.4).
WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM DEFEATS SADDLEBACK 4-2
Sophomore forward Leyna Wood put away three goals for her second hat trick of the season as No. 8 Santa Ana women’s soccer picked up its first Orange Empire Conference win, defeating Saddleback (3-3-2, 0-1-1) 4-2 on Friday.
It wasn’t until the 66th minute when Wood scored her first goal off a pass from Fatima Pimentel to give the Dons (7-1-0, 1-1-0) a 1-0 lead. Her second came just four minutes later after Santa Ana was awarded a penalty kick for a Saddleback hand ball in the box.
The Dons seemed to be cruising to their first win in OEC play until the Gauchos came alive in the 74th minute when Chloe Deveze scored on a cross to make it 2-1.
Santa Ana attempted to keep possession of the ball and run out the clock but the Gauchos had other plans. Saddleback kept the pressure on until Paige Vitolo found the back of the net in the last two minutes of regular time, tying the score at 2-2.
Right when it looked like the Dons would suffer another late meltdown, sophomore forward Ariana Figueroa came up big and took advantage of a counter to give her team a 3-2 lead in the 89th minute with her second goal of the season.In extra time, Wood scored her third goal of the match as goalkeeper Stephanie Hernandez booted a goal kick to the other side of the field to put the finishing touches on the win.
MEN’S SOCCER TEAM LOSES TO COLLEGE OF DESERT
It was an uncharacteristic match for the ranked No. 9 Santa Ana men’s soccer team on Friday as the Dons suffered their second consecutive loss by losing to College of the Desert 2-0.
Although the Dons got off more shots and seemed to have possession of the ball more frequently, College of the Desert found away to get on the board while Santa Ana struggled to finish on scoring opportunities.
The Dons even had a lopsided 13-0 corner kick advantage but failed to score for just the second time all season. Marcelo Aguirre and Abel Bautistacombined for seven shot attempts while Frank Aguilar fought through a minor leg injury to collect five saves in 90 minutes.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM LOSES TO OCC IN FIVE
The Santa Ana women’s volleyball team continued Orange Empire Conference play last week against No. 23 Orange Coast College. After fighting for five sets, SAC fell to the OCC Pirates by a score of 3-2 (25-23, 25-16, 17-25, 20-25, 15-10).
The Dons had control throughout the first set, going up by as much as nine (19-10). But unforced errors and a late rally from the Pirates spoiled the hot start for Santa Ana as they dropped the set 25-23.
OCC took that momentum into the second set, fending off a hungry Dons team with a 25-16 win.
After finding themselves down 2-0, the Dons turned up the energy and fought back in the third set. Ashly Hernandez posted five kills in set the to lead Santa Ana to a 25-17 win, making it 2-1.
Santa Ana continued to play with the same energy in the fourth set, taking it 25-20 to force a fifth a final set.
The fifth set started off fairly even but the Pirates began to pull away as they went into the break up 8-4. Santa Ana responded with a 5-2 run to cut the lead to one (10-9) but was plagued by unforced errors yet again, which led to OCC winning the set 15-10.
Hernandez finished with a match high 19 kills while Myrandah Zepeda chipped in with 16 and Elizabeth Meroldposted 11. Ally Wardlow once again led the Dons in digs with 24 and setters Jordan Nimmer and Courtney Gomez both recorded 23 assists and two aces in the match.
–Courtesy Santa Ana College sports information
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