It was freshman JOE LEZAMA’s turn to lead the ECC Men's Team as he and freshman teammate DAVID CARDONA pushed eventual winner Dahir Mohamed (Southwestern) to the wire in leading ECC to a solid 5th Place State-Qualifying team performance.

Three-time State Champion San Bernardino Valley won (56 pts) with Orange Coast 2nd (134), Glendale 3rd (140), Mt. SAC 4th (160), ECC 5th (165), and Cerritos 6th (169) in the 28-Team field - only 36 points separated places 2nd thru 6th. Lezama's time of 20:34 over the challenging, hilly 4-mile course is the fastest-ever for an ECC runner and Cardona’s #2.

ECC teammates following Lezama and Cardona were RIO ENOMOTO (44th @22:01), JOEY BIANCHI (55th @22:14), JIMI DUFFIN (65th @22:25), RYAN NORO (75th @22:30), and PATRICK O'ROURKE (110th @23:02).

A quick look at the team scores shows that 2nd Place was well within reach and that a Top 3-5 Spot in the State Championships in two weeks (albeit with the addition of a few solid programs from the north) is a realistic goal.

Sophomore REBECCA CARACOZA qualified to the State Championships with her 54th place 20:08 performance in the field of 186 runners. Running on a lingering hamstring strain, she will be ready for the State Championships.

Pictures from this meet can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/DeanLof/ElCaminoSouthernCalChampionships2009?feat=directlink

Full results can be found here: www.gocollegetrack.com

The California Community College STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS will be held:

Saturday November 21st @ Woodward Park ; Fresno

10:00am Women's 5,000m / 11:00am Men's 4-Mile

ECC Alumni in action this weekend:

San Francisco State 's RYAN RAYA (ECC/Torrance HS) and JON FLORES (ECC/Redondo HS) competed in the NCAA Western Regional Championships this past weekend in San Francisco .

Ryan led his team with a 49th place 33:40 effort with Jon their 6th man 96th @ 35:42 over the challenging 10,000 meter course. Congratulations Guys!

CSU Dominguez Hills GABY RUBI (ECC/San Pedro HS)- a member of ECC's two-time South Coast Conference Championship women's teams (3rd in state 2007/4th in 2006) - placed 99th in 24:13 over the 6,000 meter course. Congratulations Gaby!

Our continued best wishes to everyone and hope to see you soon!

South Coast Conference Championships

Saturday October 31st Legg Lake ; Whittier

ECC Men's Team Captures Conference Title in tie with Mt. SAC !
ECC's David Cardona Wins Individual Title!

The ECC Men's Team ran a solid race tying conference rival Mt. SAC 45-45 for the Conference Title. Freshman

DAVID CARDONA out-kicked LA Trade Tech's Pedro De Alba (a 4:11 1600m runner) in the last 200 meters earning the victory in 20:27 over the 4-mile course. Freshman teammate JOSE LEZAMA placed 3rd in 20:47 after taking command of the race after a slow first half-mile and opening a sizeable lead on the field. Cardona and De Alba fought together last mile catching Lezama with approximately 400m remaining. ECC sophomore RIO ENOMOTO was close behind in 7th place @ 21:27 followed by sophomore JOSEPH BIANCHI in 11th @ 21:40. Frosh JIMI DUFFIN rounded out the scorers placing 23rd in 22:09 after suffering a side cramp.

The ECC Women's Team was led by sophomore REBECCA CARACOZA's 11th place finish in 20:15 over the 3.1 mile course placing 6th in the strong South Coast Conference won by Mt. SAC . Caracoza was followed by scorers freshman KARA KALMAR (South HS), freshman MEGAN O'ROURKE (South HS), freshman BRENDA MAGANA (Chaparrel HS), and freshman KAYC WHARTON (South HS).

The SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS will be held this Friday Nov 6th @ Mt. SAC .
10:30 Women's Championship Race / 11:30 Men's Championship Race.

Qualifying teams and individuals from this Friday's Regional Championships will advance to the State Championships held Saturday Nov 21st at Woodward Park; Fresno.

Photos from the SCC Championships can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/DeanLof/ElCaminoSouthCoastConferenceFinals2009?feat=directlink

Alumni Update:

ECC Alums RYAN RAYA and JON FLORES competed for San Francisco State University while ECC Alum GABRIELA RUBI competed for CSU Dominguez Hills last weekend and all will be running in the NCAA Western Regional this Saturday hosted by San Francisco State University .

For those interested, a number of our former local high school runners competed in the PAC-10 Championships this past Friday in Long Beach . Redondo’s Cody Schmidt, Simon Schmidt, and Nicole Hough ( Cal ); West Torrance’s Angelina Spadafino (AZ State); and Mira Costa’s Shadeh Tabatabai (UCLA) represented the South Bay with some pictures found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/DeanLof/PAC10XCChampionships2009?feat=directlink

And many more including results here: www.dyestatcal.com

Thanks for your Support and Have A Great Week!

Southern California Preview Invitational

Friday Oct 16th @ Mt. SAC

El Camino's Cardona and Lezama finish 2-3 in field of 339 athletes!

Thirty-seven teams mostly from Southern California but also including American River from the north, five from Arizona, and one from Kansas participated in this huge invitational - 339 runners toeing the line in the Men's and Women's races.

In the Men's race, a fast first mile left only Dahir Mohamed (Southwestern) and El Camino's talented duo of DAVID CARDONA and JOSE LEZAMA challenging for the lead and ultimately the win. Mohamed got it today (21:10) with CARDONA 2nd (21:22) and LEZAMA 3rd (21:41) all having great races in the 90-degree heat on the strenuous Mt. SAC 4-mile course.

The team title was won by Orange Coast with their 75 points followed by Mt. SAC (144), Glendale (153), American River (157), and El Camino (5th @ 210) in the large 37-team field. Other South Coast Conference teams included 8th place Cerritos (248), Long Beach City (17th @ 484), Pasadena (23rd @ 628), and East LA (33rd @ 1003).

ECC Scorers following the duo of Cardona and Lezama were RIO ENOMOTO (47th), RYAN NORO (71st), and NOAH LOPEZ (99th). Normal 3rd man JIMI DUFFIN suffered a severe side-cramp and was our 6th today (114th), otherwise, on a more normal day, the ECC men may have potentially walked away 2nd – but with bigger meets ahead, we’ll learn and move-on.

REBECCA CARACOZA led the ECC Women today with her 25th place effort in the huge field with a time of 19:46 on the hilly 3-mile course. Glendale easily won the women's race over Orange Coast College - the two top teams in the state throughout the year.

More pictures from the meet can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/DeanLof/ECCSouthernCalifPreview2009?feat=directlink

We will field our full Men's and Women's squads at our next competition, the SOUTH COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS held SATURDAY Oct 31st at Legg Lake; Whittier.

Women's Race: 10:00 am

Men's Race: 11:00 am

This Championship Race will determine Teams and Individuals advancing to the following week's Southern California Regional Championships to be held FRIDAY Nov 6th back again at Mt. SAC .

Teams and Individuals advancing from the Southern California Regional Championships will compete in the State Championships held Saturday morning Nov 21st at Woodward Park; Fresno.

Women's Race: 10:00am and Men's Race: 11:00 am:

If you wish to follow Southern California Community College Cross Country and Track, go here: www.gocollegetrack.com

Once again and as always, we appreciate your support!

Irvine "Howard Brubaker" Invitational

10-10-09 @ Irvine Regional Park

Freshman DAVID CARDONA won his first Invitational of the year out-sprinting Sequoia's David Sanchez in the closing stretch to WIN @ 19:52 over the 4-mile course leading the El Camino's Men's Team to a solid 2nd Place finish.

Teammate JOSE LEZAMA followed in a solid 8th place finish @ 20:15, but today belonged to Cardona who sat in the tightly-bunched lead pack until the final stretch. Frosh JIMI DUFFIN and soph RIO ENOMOTO led a solid group of ECC runners in 19th place (20:58) and 20th place (21:02). Also beginning to narrow the gap between themselves and their teammate front-runners were soph JOEY BIANCHI (21:25), soph NOAH LOPEZ (21:25), and soph PATRICK O'ROURKE (22:03).

Defending State Champions San Bernardino Valley won the meet with 46 points followed by El Camino @ 81, the Top Northern Cal team College of Sequoias @ 91, and conference rival Mt. SAC 4th @ 94 in the 15-team field.

Soph REBECCA CARACOZA again led the El Camino women with a solid 13th Place finish @ 20:09 over 3.1 miles in the 104 runner field. Bouncing back from a hotly-contested soccer game with Harbor College the night prior, frosh KAYC WHARTON placed 62nd with frosh teammate MEGAN O'ROURKE close behind.

More ECC photos from the Irvine Invite can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/DeanLof/ECCIrvineInvitational2009?feat=directlink

The El Camino Men are currently ranked #4 in Southern California with the El Camino Women preparing to qualify from the Conference to the Southern Cal Regional Championships in three weeks and making a hopeful run at qualifying to the State Championships. With the Top 14 teams in Southern Cal advancing to the State Championships, the men are solid contenders while the women are doing their best to come together solidly in the Championship meets.

This Friday, ECC competes in the Southern California Preview Meet at Mt. SAC showcasing most every team in Southern California on the site of November 6th's Southern California Championships. The South Coast Conference Championships is scheduled for Saturday Oct 31st at Legg Lake ; Whittier .

ALUMNI NEWS:

Yesterday morning at the LONG BEACH MARATHON, ECC Alum HUMBERTO SANCHEZ (ECC/Western Colorado) placed 7th in a tremendous first-ever marathon performance of 2:40.01!

Congratulations Humberto!

Last Saturday at the Manhattan Beach 10k run, many former ECC’ers competed including:

10th place ALEX GORNEY @ 35:41 (now at USC)

14th place RICK DODSON @36:48 (ECC/UCI and 5,000m school-record holder)

21st place SEAN SHEIL @ 36:59 (Assistant Coach and PT Faculty)

3rd place woman CAMBRIA D’AMICO @ 37:35 (ECC/CSUDH)

46th place TYLER STOVER @ 38:32 (ECC/CSU Channel Islands)

56th place KEVIN ELLIOTT @ 39:49 (ECC/USC/ former #6 800m runner in the U.S. )

9th place women RENEE WILLIAMS-SMITH @ 41:04 (ECC/Kansas State)

11th place woman DIANE SILVA @ 42:18

Nice Job to All!

Thanks and your support is greatly appreciated!

Golden West Invitational

Friday 9-25-09 @ Central Park; Huntington Beach

Freshman JOSE LEZAMA WON his 3rd major invitational of the season, this time surging away from previously undefeated Dahir Mohamed (Southwestern) in the last mile to win in 20:04 on the rolling 4-mile course. His time places him 2nd on the ECC All-Time list for this course just behind Art Diaz’ 20:03. Closely backing-up his teammate again was freshman DAVID CARDONA in 5th place @ 20:33. Slowly beginning to close the gap between the two ECC front-runners were frosh JIMI DUFFIN in 22nd (21:26); soph RIO ENOMOTO 30th (21:40) and soph NOAH LOPEZ in 31st (21:40). Rounding out our Top 7 were sophs JOEY BIANCHI (22:27) and PATRICK O’ROURKE (22:31) in the 196 runner field.

Southern Cal’s #3-ranked Glendale College won the meet with 42 points followed by Riverside with 79 pts and 5th ranked EL CAMINO a solid 3rd with 89 points in the 26-team field. The only other South Coast Conference schools competing were 21st place East LA and 22nd place Compton .

The women were again led by sophomore REBECCA CARACOZA who placed 14th in the large field of 167 runners with her 14th and time of 19:58 over the rolling 5,000m (3.1 mile) course placing her 7th on the ECC All-Time list for this course.

The El Camino Men and Women will have a much-needed bye this weekend in preparation for the 2nd half of the season beginning with the competitive IRVINE INVITATIONAL to be held Saturday October 10th at Irvine Regional Park . The week after we will travel to Mt. SAC for the 40-team Southern California Championships Preview Meet held Friday October 16th.

Photos from Friday’s Golden West Invitational can be found at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/DeanLof/GoldenWestInvitational2009?feat=directlink

As always, thanks for your interest and continued support.

Coach Dean Lofgren

Frosh KayC Wharton was unable to compete Friday due to a conflicting ECC soccer game where she scored two goals against visiting Imperial Valley helping win 9-0.

Alumni News:

Heard this morning that former ECC runners Ryan Raya and Jon Flores helped lead San Francisco State University this weekend to a 10th place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota. Ryan was SFSU’s #1 man running 27:35 over the 5-mile course with Jon Flores #6 man running 28:59.

UC Irvine Invitational

Saturday 9-12-09

The ECC Cross Country teams took advantage of the opportunity to compete against many major four-year University and Colleges in this highly-competitive competition held on the UC Irvine campus. The men raced against 21 teams in a field of 213 athletes over the longer 5-mile distance compared to the standard JC 4-mile race distance. Although we may have gotten out a bit too fast (inexperience at this distance), we held on for a solid 10th place finish.

Freshman JOSE LEZAMA led the men in 19th place @ 25:47 (5:09 per mile) followed closely by frosh teammate DAVID CARDONA in 26th (25:58). Top returning soph RIO ENOMOTO followed in 27:32 with last week's #2 man, JIMI DUFFIN, suffering a bit from a fast, early pace at 27:50. Soph NOAH LOPEZ was right behind at 27:53. Also in our top 7 were soph JOEY BIANCHI @ 28:15 and soph PATRICK O'ROURKE @ 28:55.

NCAA D-2 power Chico State won the race with 36 points followed by Cal Poly SLO (65), Fresno State (110), UC Irvine (125), CS San Marcos (159), UC San Diego (229), Pepperdine (230), Pomona Pitzer (266), EL CAMINO (273), Northern Colorado (354), Concordia (356), Biola (367), The Master's (378), Southwestern (409), CSU Northridge (468), Gran Canyon Univ (509), and University of San Diego (565).

For the women, sophomore REBECCA CARACOZA ran a personal best over the 5,000m distance in 34th place @ 20:27. A member of her 2007 ECC 3rd place in State Team, GABRIELA RUBI, placed 13th overall (19:34) now running for CSU Dominguez Hills. Freshman MEGAN O'ROURKE, running in her first collegiate race, ran 25:56 for the 5k distance. The entire women's team will compete at this Saturday's Orange Coast Classic.

Pictures from this meet and others can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DeanLof/UCIrvineInvitational2009?feat=directlink

Full results from the UC Irvine Invitational can be found here:
http://flashresults.com/flashwest/

This Saturday, the ECC Men's and Women's Teams will travel to the Orange Coast Classic to be held at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa . The State's top-ranked men's and women's teams from OCC will host and we expect a very competitive field of approximately 20 teams.

Current Southern California cross country rankings – with the ECC men currently ranked #6 - can be found at:
www.gocollegetrack.com

Thanks for your continued support!

16007 Crenshaw Blvd. Torrance, CA 90506
Phone: 1.310.532.3670 Toll Free:1.866.ELCAMINO (1.866.352.2646)

Last Updated On: 11/17/09