Ruiz 19th At SoCal Championships, Women's Cross Country Qualifies 3 For State Meet

Pasadena City College's Olivia Ruiz kept her outstanding freshman season going as she raced 19th overall at the SoCal Women's Cross Country Championships held Friday at San Diego's Mission Bay, 5-kilometer course. Ruiz raced a time of 20:29.2, a 51-second improvement and six-place jump from her Sept. 13 finish on the same course.

Ruiz, a freshman and an All-South Coast Conference First Team selection, helped the Lancers place 18th out of 28 scoring teams at the SoCal finals. It was the first time that PCC scored as a team at regionals since 2016 and the highest placing by the Lancers since 2014 (17th place). Ruiz had the highest SoCal Finish by a Lancer in nine years (Tracee van der Wyk was SoCal runner-up, 2nd place, at the 2010 regional finals). 

It was also a banner day for two other Lancers in freshman Meline Minasian, who placed 69th out of 183 total racers in 22:26.7, and sophomore Julia Reyes, who placed 71st in 22:29.1. This means that Ruiz, Minasian and Reyes have all qualified for the upcoming CCCAA State Championship meet to be held Nov. 23 at Fresno's Woodward Park. PCC's team season came to an end.

The Lancers had not qualified a runner to state in three years and this is the first time PCC had at least three runners make the state cut since the last time the school had a team qualify for the state meet back in 2014 (finished 17th overall). 

"This was a big improvement for us with the women's squad in 2019," said PCC head coach Innocent Egbunike. "Olivia has emerged as one of the state's top racers and it showed at the SoCal meet. Both Meline and Julia worked very hard in recent weeks to get their performances and times up to a state standard. We are very pleased to send three to Fresno."

Also at the SoCal Finals racing in their final '19 meet were Nathalia Caramaschi (148th, 25:54) and Wafa Kasim (167th, 27:07).   

Glendale won the SoCal team title while Ventura's Olivia Burton was regional individual race champion in 19:21.6. Ruiz had the third fastest mark of any South Coast Conference runner after placing fifth at the SCC Finals meet.