American River men dominate in Big 8 Cross Country Preview
SACRAMENTO - After a 643-day gap between cross country meets due to COVID, the American River College Beavers looked like they never missed a step, capturing eight of the top 10 places in a dominating win at the Big 8 Preview on Friday afternoon.
Adding some stress was a last-minute change in venue from Folsom Lake College to American River College due to poor air quality in Folsom due to the NorCal fires. The 2019 defending Big 8 Conference and NorCal Regional champions scored just 17 points to easily top second-place San Joaquin Delta, which finished with 60 points. Winning the 4.0-mile preview meet in an outstanding early season time of 20 minutes, 29 seconds (5:07 min per mile) was Cristian Martinez (Liberty Ranch HS).
He was followed closely by runner-up Jacob Christopher (20:35, Calaveras HS) and third-place Ethan Dodge (20:40, Whitney HS). Rounding out the next two spots with the final scoring places were Colin Wong (20:50, Oakmont HS) and Jason Finta (20:55, Whitney HS). It was just 7 seconds later that the Beavers showed everyone their real depth by taking places 8 through 14, for 12 of the first 14 overall in the 48-runner field.
Santa Rosa placed third with 64 points and was followed by Butte (114) and Sacramento City (129). After ARC took the top three spots, Marcos Perez from San Joaquin Delta (20:44.1) grabbed the fourth spot. Santa Rosa's Paden Collard was seventh (20:59.6).
Next up for ARC is the CCCAA State Preview at Woodward Park on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 8:30 a.m.
(Courtesy ARC Men's Cross Country)