Bartlett grabs 10th in WSC; both Vaquero teams advance

Nicole Bartlett topped the SBCC women with a personal-best of 19:46 for 10^th place on Thursday in the WSC Cross Country Championships 5K race, which featured 128 runners at Oxnard College. Katie Huntington was 23^rd in 20:17 and Alexa Sanchez placed 35^th in 20:32.

Rachel Naumann of Moorpark won the women's race in 18:43.

Glendale took the team title with 56 points. Santa Barbara grabbed the eighth and final berth in the So Cal meet with 172 points, edging L.A. Valley by two points.

"It was a challenge, going from two difficult courses to a very flat course," said Fickerson of the women's race. "Nicole, who's a 1500 runner, responded very well.

"Qualifying for the So Cal meet was our No. 1 goal and I expect that we'll bounce back and run much better in two weeks."

SBCC's Ian Roberts took the lead in the fourth mile and went on to capture the individual men's title. Roberts covered the 4-mile course in 20:32, beating the runner-up, Rodrigo Ornelas of Canyons, by eight seconds. He's the first SBCC runner to win a WSC title since Curly Guillen in 2001.

Alex Heuchert was sixth for the Vaqueros in the 127-man field in 21:14, Martin Montes took ninth (21:27) and Zeph Alva was 29^th (22:13).

It was the second straight win for Roberts, a sophomore from Ventura High who also won  the SBCC Invitational on Oct. 11.

"It was a flat course but deceptively slow with lots of turns," said SBCC coach Scott Fickerson. "Ian ran with the pack and then broke away somewhere in the fourth mile."

The Vaqueros placed third with 86 points and easily qualified for the Southern Cal Championships on Nov. 8 in Saugus. Canyons won the men's meet with 43 points and Glendale was second at 49.

WSC Championships
At College Park
Oxnard College