Cross Country Ends Season at So Cal Championships

In its first season back after a 19-year hiatus, the Mission Women's Cross Country team qualified for postseason competition and ran in the Southern California Championship Meet on Friday, Nov. 3.

The Eagles had a fairytale season, improving in each meet leading up to the Western State Conference Championships. When they earned their spot at the regional tournament, it was history for LA Mission Athletics.

The So Cal Championship would be Mission's last competition of the year, as they did not qualify to move on to CCCAA Championships. But that was largely due to a barrage of unforeseeable setbacks the day of the meet.

Freshman Angel Blanquera became sick and could not travel with the team or compete. During the race, freshman Samantha Ochoa twisted her ankle early on and couldn't finish. Finally, while approaching the finish line, freshman standout Natascha Klein was pushed and broke her tibia when she fell. She tried to keep running, but could only walk the rest of the way, and just barely missed the cutoff to qualify for CCCAA as an individual.

Despite the disturbance in the Force, the rest of the team turned in a valiant effort. Melissa Mejorada ran a 24:07.2, followed by Kimberly Mejorada at 25:21.8 and Jasmine Trujillo at 29:32.6. However, their performances ultimately did not result in a CCCAA Championship bid for Mission.

Head Coach Florence Edi said she was proud of the way the athletes approached and planned for the competition, and they had a good energy going in.

"I think the girls were in the right frame of mind. They were ready to focus on individual performances in order to see if they could advance to State Championships, so I was very proud to see that focus and determination," Edi said. "And regardless of the setbacks, I was very encouraged to see that we were not down and we rallied to support each other after the race."