Sophomore Cecilia Instebo kicked-off the cross-country season by placing 18th out of 200 women runners at the Southern Cal Preview Meet in Costa Mesa on Saturday.

Instebo turned in a time of 19:49, while freshman Ian Roberts finished at 22:21, placing 50th in the men’s 4-mile race to help rank the Vaqueros 18 out of 26 schools. City College did not compete with a full team so they didn’t they post an official score.

“Its not a great indicator of what our potential is,” coach Scott Fickerson explained. “We went in with a pretty conservative race plan and it went according to plan.”

A total of five athletes for men’s and women’s each are needed to make up a scoring squad and only six total raced at the seasons opening due to injury and illness. A full team is expected to compete at their next meet.

The top new runners for the men are freshmen Ian Roberts and Blane Infald.

Nicole Bartlett, Emily Bernath, Nicole Mozillo, and Sara Smith are top additions to the woman’s team.

Instebo, who placed 33rd in last seasons state competition, is the only returning runner for the women’s team.

“I’m very positive about this season,” Instebo said. “We have a really good team for both the men and women and my goal is to make it to state with the team which I am very positive we will do.”

The team is hoping to both men’s and women’s qualify for the State Championships for the first time in three decades.

“Our big goal this season is to qualify for the state meet and place in the top ten,” Fickerson said. “ Everything we are doing between now and then is just leading up to those goals.”

The Vaqueros will race again in the Bakersfield Invitational on Friday at 3:30 p.m.