The Pasadena City College men's cross country team opened the 2016 season under new head coach Innocent Egbunike by placing seventh out of nine teams at the 32nd Ventura Invitational held September 2. The highlight was the performance of sophomore Nathan-Michael Guzman, who placed ninth overall with a time of 23 minutes, 24.7 seconds over the 4-mile course at Arroyo Verde Park.
Guzman returns to the Lancers after being their top runner in 2014 when he was 18th at the South Coast Conference Championships and 50th at the CCCAA State Meet. Another '14 returner is Eric Bravo, who was 42nd out of 86 runners at 25:50.5. A letterman from last year is Jeremy Alvarenga (76th, 30:58.8).
The freshmen so far are paced by Christian Alcala (Don Bosco Tech, Rosemead), whose PCC debut was a 24th place finish at 24:48.3. Kalen Marshall (Blair HS) is another frosh standout and took 27th (25:01.1). Vicente Estrada (ESAT, Los Angeles) is a newcomer who took 74th (30:44.6).
Moorpark won the Ventura team title while West Los Angeles runner Alex Gomez was the individual race champion at 22:49.8.
[Photo--Nathan-Michael Guzman (1451, middle) and the rest of the PCC men's cross country team starts the Ventura Invitational on Friday, image by Richard Quinton.]
