The Santa Ana College cross country team was led by Giovanni Barajas (middle), who won the title at the conference finals. (Photo courtesy Santa Ana College sports information)
In Friday’s Orange Empire Conference Championships at Irvine Regional Park, Giovanni Barajas of Santa Ana College brought home a championship with a time of 21:48.45.
Early in the race, four Riverside runners jumped out to lead the pack while Barajas sat back in fifth place. But by the three mile mark, the sophomore from Garden Grove High not only closed the gap, but distanced himself by about 50 yards.
Barajas kept that lead down the stretch to beat the next man in by approximately 18 seconds.
After the race, Barajas embraced head coach Miriam Mitzel, who believed he would win from the start.
“Each year, I give every one of my runners a motivation quote before the OEC Championships,” Coach Mitzel said. “Before giving Gio his quote I told him to make a statement, let everyone know who he is, have pride and represent SAC. Get out fast and don’t look back. Give everything you have and you’ll have no regrets.”
Barajas did just that with an impressive performance that put him at the top of the conference.
Francisco Avila (25:09.74/32nd), Andres Ramirez (25:58.90/44th), Eder Diaz (26:45.21/54th) and Corben Pagnotta (30:06.54/63rd) joined him in the race to help Santa Ana qualify for the 2019 CCCAA SoCal Championships.
Maria Marroquin led the way for the Lady Dons, placing 14th overall with a time of 22:09.33. Her team also qualified for CCCAA SoCals as teammates Daisy Tellez (22:09.33/33rd), Paula Alvarez (25:16.21/33rd), Irlanda Hernandez (25:35.57/36th) and Giselle Arenas (26:00.34/38th) had solid races. The Dons will travel to San Diego for the SoCal Championships on Friday Nov. 8 at 10 a.m.
FOOTBALL TEAM WINS THIRD GAME OF SEASON
Santa Ana College’s football team collected its third victory of the season with a dominant performance against Compton College in its 2019 Homecoming game on Saturday. The Dons pulled away in the second half to defeat the Tartars 56-20 and improve to third place in the American Metro League with a record of 3-5, 2-2.
In the first quarter, Santa Ana used some creativity to score first as Donald McKinney found a lane to get into the end zone on a double-reverse run from 18 yards out.
A couple possessions later, the Dons found themselves in great field position after Kyle Hurry (Woodbridge High) blocked and recovered a punt to start the Santa Ana drive at the Tartar 11 yard line. A nine yard rush from quarterback Cross Faletoi followed by a 4-yard TD run from Cole Nequette made it a 14-0 game at the 1:36 mark in the first quarter.
Compton answered with a 48-yard touchdown drive that ended with a one yard plunge by Damien Wright. They converted the two point conversion to cut the lead to 14-8.
The touchdown got Compton back in the game but they couldn’t find a way to slow down Santa Ana as Faletoi kept the Dons’ offense looking sharp, throwing two touchdowns in the half to push the lead to 28-8 by halftime.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM UPSETS RIVERSIDE
In an intense Orange Empire Conference match against the Riverside City Tigers, the Santa Ana College volleyball team pulled off the upset with a 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 21-25, 23-25) win.
SAC earned its second OEC win of the year and improved to 5-14, 2-9 while dropping the Tigers to a record of 10-11, 4-7.
The match began with Riverside getting out to an early lead before the Dons battled back to even the score at 20-20. A service error and a couple kills by Josephine Sua gave RCC a 23-20 lead. Santa Ana responded with a point on a Tiger error and an ace from Taylor Hernandez to cut the lead to one. Following a timeout, Riverside went on a 2-0 run to end the set up 25-23.
SAC continued to play at high level in the second set and bounced back with a 25-22 win of its own. Elizabeth Merold, Myrandah Zepeda and Ashley Hernandez collected three kills a piece to lead Santa Ana’s offense, tying the match at one all.
The turning point came in the third set when the Dons found themselves down 16-8. At that point, Santa Ana flipped the switch and went on an unforeseen 17-5 run, storming back to take the set 25-21. Zepeda played a huge role in the comeback as she put away five kills during the span.
Santa Ana kept the same energy as they pushed points in the fourth set, giving themselves a 20-15 lead. But Riverside wasn’t quite done as they fought back with four consecutive points. The two teams went back and forth until Hernandez put the Dons up 24-23 with a kill followed by an RCC hitting error that ended the match.
Zepeda led all players with 17 kills in the match to go with nine digs and a couple blocking assists. Hernandez pitched in with a double-double performance, logging 12 kills, 16 digs and two aces. And Merold contributed with 8 kills and three blocking assists.
Freshman setter Courtney Gomez was inserted into the lineup in the second set and put a jolt in the Don offense. Gomez finished with 30 assists, her second highest total this season, in arguably her best outing of the year.And the Santa Ana defensive anchor, Ally Wardlow, had another impactful match with her 10th 20 dig night while adding five aces and four assists.
WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM WINS 1-0 OVER FULLERTON
Leyna Wood scored her 18th goal of the season to put the Santa Ana women’s soccer team in the driver’s seat against the 10th ranked Fullerton Hornets on Friday afternoon. The Dons held on to the 1-0 lead until Fullerton’s Morgan Dack scored with under two minutes left in the match, giving both teams another tie on their season record.
MEN’S SOCCER MOVES INTO THIRD IN STANDINGS
The SAC men’s soccer team climbed to third place in the Orange Empire Conference standings with a 2-1 win over Fullerton on Friday.
-Courtesy Santa Ana College sports information
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