RCC Women Runners Finish Second at Brubaker Invite

IRVINE -- Recovering from a strenuous mid-week workout remarkably well, the Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers women's cross country squad posted a second-place finish (54 points) at the Howard Brubaker Invitational hosted by Santa Ana College at Irvine Regional Park last Friday (Oct. 10).

Riverside (54 points) finished behind the first-place Cerritos College Falcons (39 points). Placing third were the Southwestern College (SWC) Jaguars (94 points), followed by the fourth-place Saddleback College (SC) Gauchos (97 points), and the fifth-place Palomar College (PC) Comets (135 points) over the five-kilometer (3.1 miles) course.

Leading the way for RCC was frosh Brianna Jacklin (Riverside / M.L. King '14), who finished third overall (19:17.8), followed by frosh Rebecca "Maria" Morales (Riverside / Poly '13), who was tenth overall (19:54.6), and frosh Crystal Tejeda (Riverside / Notre Vista '14), who was 12th overall (20:03.9).

Next for RCC were sophomore Isi Ibarra (Highland / San Gorgonio '13), who was 14th overall (20:10.3), and sophomore Halina Carrera (Chino / Chino Hills '13), who was 16th overall (20:14.8).

"We had a difficult workout on Wednesday instead of Tuesday which didn't leave a lot of time for the team to recover," said RCC head women's cross country coach Damien Smith. "We're looking forward to the (Orange Empire) Conference championships later this month.

The Tigers next compete at the Mt. San Antonio Invite at Walnut on Friday, Nov. 17, at 10 a.m.

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