Thanks to a 1-2 finish by Jennifer Recinos and Toni Payton, the Clovis Community College women's cross country team totaled 19 points to capture the Crush's third consecutive Central Valley Conference championship. The CVC Championships were held on Wednesday at Woodward Park in Fresno.
The Crush women won their first-ever conference title in 2018, took first in 2019 and now 2021. The 2020 season was cancelled because of COVID-19.
Clovis earned four of the top-five women's finishes on its way to beating second-place College of the Sequoias' score of 39 points. Fresno City College (2 individuals) and Porterville College (1) did not receive team scores.
Recinos cleared the 3.1-mile Woodward Park Course with a time of 19:36.2 to win the individual championship. Payton was second at 19:49.4, followed by Sequoias' top finisher Ximena Ramos in third place with her time of 19:57.3.
Clovis' Morgan Prescott finished fourth at 20:19.0 and Evelyn Zambrano was fifth (20:35.0) to round out the top five. Liliana Salado of COS was sixth (20:53.2) and Megan Duran from Clovis was seventh (20:57.3) to earn All-Central Valley Conference honors (top-7 finishers).
Up next for the Crush is the Northern California Regional Championship on Nov. 5 at Sierra College in Rocklin. The team will be looking to qualify for the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Cross Country State Championship on Nov. 20 at Woodward Park.
For other top stories check out the Clovis Community College athletics website at gocloviscrush.com.
