Pasadena City College women's cross country sophomore Franceska Millanponce ran under 20 minutes to take ninth place overall at the Palomar Invitational held September 9 in Oceanside. For the second straight meet, the Lancers took sixth place as a team (11 scoring colleges).

Millanponce raced 19:51 flat as one of only 11 runners to break the 20-minute mark over the 5-kilometer course. Saddleback won the team title while Santiago Canyon's Gabrielle De La Rosa won the race in 19:15.

For PCC, freshman Ramina Padashi Fard ran 20:34.8, which was good enough for 13th place overall. There was an unusual 35-second gap between the first group of runners and the second bunch that completed the race.

The Lancers will have to find improvement after their top two runners as Andrea Sigala (25:59, 44th) and Kandice Kwan (26:07) were the next fastest, finishing in the middle of the pack in the 98-runner field. Alyssa Villagracia was the only other PCC runner in 75th (27:55).

Next up for PCC is the SoCal Preview Meet this Friday, Sept. 16 at Irvine Regional Park in the City of Orange.