PCC Lancers Enjoy Rose City Running Classic

Pasadena City College cross country head coach Armand Crespo wanted to bring some excitement to a sport here that doesn’t lend itself to having a home course or home field. So the Lancers ran the inaugural Rose City Running Classic Friday under the lights at Pasadena’s Brookside Golf Course, next to the Rose Bowl.

PCC’s “home course” was a success as several hundred fans and participating local high schools in other races joined the Lancers in the newly-created invitational. The Lancers ran the final two races of the day as the PCC women took third place among six teams and the Pasadena men scored second out of four participating teams.

The women’s team placed behind Cal State Bernardino and Cal State Los Angeles, Crespo’s alma mater, but had the fastest community college time of the 5-kilometer race turned in by sophomore Christina Shamirian. Placing 21st overall, Shamirian ran the course in 20 minutes, 30.54 seconds. Freshman Tansica Sunkamaneevongse was right behind her in 25th at 20:37.17.

Shamirian talked about the unique opportunity to run in a cross country race at night.

“I had fun because there were parts where you were running in blind spots,” Shamirian said. “It was dark in some portions but then that’s when I could feel myself going from the turf and then to the hard surface. You see the loop and lights of the Rose Bowl, and that’s where we have run practices, and that made it fun too. Most of the races are in the mornings and you feel the heat. The temperature at night is a lot better condition to run.”

Other PCC women’s racers were freshmen Brenda Grate (38th, 21:13.79), Edna Bailon (40th, 21:38.46), Emely Garcia (41st, 21:42.74), and Ashley Medina (44th, 21:45.82). Sophomores Kailadnni Chavez (48th, 21:54.68) and Linda Barillas-Flores (52nd, 22:22.94), and freshmen Marina Flores (53rd, 22:32) and Kate Manzke (72nd, 25:25) also took part.

In the men’s 8-k race, the finish line turned into a parade of PCC runners in a sprint to see which one would cross the line first. Sophomore Oswel Caal beat our his letterman teammate Brendan Greene, running barefoot, as six Lancers finished consecutively in a remarkable span of 1.73 seconds.

Caal placed 27th overall at 25:20.71, then Greene in 28th at 25:20.91. They were followed by sophomore Chris Alagala (29th, 25:21.31), and freshmen Russell Yu (30th, 25.21.98), David Moreno (31st, 25:22.07), and Ruben Torres (32nd, 25:22.44). Sophomore Abraham Esparza took 34th (25:34.31). Other PCC finishers were frosh Pedro Lopez (51st, 26:42), Sergio Andrade (53rd, 27:02), Adam Akopyan (61st, 28:07), and finally sophomore Faustino Gil (65th, 29:31).

“I hope we can build on this event in the future,” Crespo said. “The big thing is that we got to host a meet in the City of Pasadena. It’s been a long time since we ran a race that wasn’t considered a road meet. The runners I think I had fun.”