Riverside Races to Fourth-place Finish at CCCAA Championships at FResno's Woodward Park Saturday

FRESNO -- Posting its highest state finish this decade, the Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers women's cross country team posted a fourth-place finish at the 39th California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Women's Championships Saturday morning (Nov. 21) at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Riverside, which was ranked No. 4 in the state, was as advertised. The Tigers ran the 3.1-mile (5.0 kilometer) race and accumulated 148 points.

Glendale College won the race (37 points), followed by second-place Hartnell (117), third-place College of the Canyons (121), RCC, and fifth-place Mt. San Antonio (203). Cerritos was sixth (205), followed by American River (243), Orange Coast (248), San Diego Mesa (249) and Saddleback (344).

For Glendale, the Vaqueros had all five runners in team scoring finish 14th or higher and qualified as 2015 All-American. Head coach Eddie Lopez picked up his fourth state title having won in 2007, 2009 and 2011. Inserted around those, he guided the Lady Vaqueros to runner-up spots in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012-14.

To practically no one's surprise, Aminat Olowora of Southwestern repeated as state champion as she blazed through the course with a phenomenal time of 17:02.0. She did not break her course record of 16:59.7 set last year, but the 2015 time is second-best in CCCAA women's cross country history and she beat American River's NorCal champ Jenica Dodge (17:46.8) by 45 seconds.

RCC was led by sophomore Brianna Jacklin (Riverside / M.L. King, Jr. HS '14), who was eighth overall (18:57.3) and gained All-America status. For RCC, Jacklin was followed by frosh Natalie Vaughn (Corona / Santiago HS '15), who was 24th overall (19:18.4), sophomore Crystal Tejeda (Riverside / Norte Vista HS '14), who was 26th overall (19:19.4), frosh Alexis Louis (Riverside / Poly HS '15), who was 44th overall (19:42.5), frosh Megan Reed (Riverside / Poly HS '15), who was 59th overall (19:59.6), sophomore Morgan Tapia (Eastvale / Eleanor Roosevelt HS '14), who was 62nd overall (20:02.1), and sophomore Liliana Vargas (Eastvale / Eleanor Roosevelt HS '14), who was 71st overall (20:09.7).

Although RCC has not won a state championship in women's cross country, the Tigers have (since 1999) finished as high as second (tied in 2004, outright in 2005), fourth (2009 & 2015), fifth (2006), sixth (2003 & 2008), eighth (2001 & 2010) and tenth (2007).  

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