With its most successful women’s cross-country season since 1996, Pasadena City College showed its worth at the CCCAA State Championships Saturday at Fresno’s Woodward Park. The Lancers’ 10th place team finish was highlighted by five PCC runners racing among the top 101. It was the highest team finish for the Lancers since they placed fourth overall at the 1996 state meet.

Elizabeth Lyons closed out her two-year PCC racing career by taking 53rd place with a time of 19 minutes, 47.3 seconds. Freshman Diane Lombardi was not far behind in 56th place at 19:50.1. In 79th was frosh runner Zahina Rios, who hit the finish at 20:07.84. Sophomore Rebecca Nunez covered the 3.1 mile course in the 92nd spot at 20:19.32. Arielle Barragan, a freshman, may have run the most important race team-wise as she placed 101st (20:34.83).

Often a team’s fifth runner can determine a large swing in team placing, especially when the runner is far behind the team’s top four. In this case, Barragan’s finish scored 82nd individually (19 non-scoring runners who were ahead of her were from teams that reached their 5-runner maximum or were runners who qualified from colleges only as individuals).

Cassandra Lew, a sophomore, trotted in 130th spot (21:02.17) and freshman Tessa Chandler rounded out PCC’s team finishers in 165th (21:48.48). Glendale College won the state title behind race champion Karen Rosas with a blistering time of 17:59.61. Among South Coast Conference teams, only Mt. San Antonio (third) and LA Trade Tech (seventh) placed ahead of Pasadena.

“We had a goal to finish in the top 10 and we accomplished it,” said PCC Head Coach Armand Crespo. “We ran well enough at the conference meet, then slipped a bit at the SoCals. We urged our second tier runners to go after it, and we were able to get big efforts from Arielle, Zahina, and Rebecca. Diane ran her best race since early in the year. Elizabeth was consistent once again, leading us in all the big races since mid-season.”

The Lancers placed third at the SCC Championships and 13th at the Southern California meet.

Photo--Elizabeth Lyons (bib no. 271) made a fashion statement with her colorful pink socks and led the Lancers to 10th place overall at the CCCAA State Championships in Fresno, image by Richard Quinton.

Release Date: 11/19/2011