Week No. 8 Runners of the Week announced by 5CTCA

A large number of SoCal teams, along with some Arizona community colleges, toured Liberty Station Park in San Diego for a flat but mostly grass course. Josh Melendez of Cerritos impressed last spring with a 3:54 time in the 1,500-meter race at the state championship, but this fall has helped Cerritos College put together one of its best teams in recent years. Melendez placed eighth overall in the 20:39, fourth among 3C2A runners, to help Cerritos to a fourth-place team finish. He has the Falcons aiming for a top-three finish in November. 

 

Nadia Munoz of Riverside City College finished fifth in 18:59 to help the Tigers to a fifth-place team finish. Munoz was an All-American in 2023 with a 12th-place finish but is catching fire heading into her final state championship for RCC. Munoz was fourth overall in the last two meets and fourth among community college runners at Manny Bautista.

 

Butte College racked up its third ROTW as Phillip Logan placed second overall at his home meet. Logan's time of 21:16 made him the program record holder on the challenging campus course and helped the Roadrunners to a team win 40-43 over Hartnell College. They will take their highest team ranking in over 20 years into next month's Northern California Championship and try to win their first regional trophy since the merge of the small and large school divisions in the North.

 

Hartnell College freshman Janai Orozco placed second to teammate Roselyn Olivo at the Butte College Invitational. Her time of 20:33 moved her into the top 10 performances on the course and was a comfortable 20 seconds ahead of third place. Orozco and the Panthers won their first meet of the 2024 season and she will look to give the Panthers a second All-Region runner next month.