City College’s cross country team had another season to remember as both teams participated in the State Championships for the second straight year; the men finished 11th and the women finished 19th.
Ian Roberts, a standout on the men’s team, took seventh place in the race and was named an All-American. He ran the four-mile course in 20:29, a personal best for the sophomore. Earlier in the year, he won the Western State Conference title and placed second in the Southern California Regional competition.
“The season went better than I could have asked for,” said Roberts. “As a team we performed fantastic, and individually I would have never thought it was possible for me to become an All-American”
On the women’s side, sophomore Nicole Bartlett finished 13th for the second straight season, earning All-American honors. She also ran a personal-best time of 18:50 in the women’s 5k race, which is 3.1 miles. Bartlett was out for much of the year with an injury. The State Championships was only her fourth race of the season.
“I spent summer training in a pool due to injury, and I expected to return to running without any loss of fitness,” said Bartlett. “But that wasn’t the case and I felt like I lost so much.”
Bartlett struggled to stick with cross country because she was frustrated with her injury. She credits her coach and teammates for supporting her the whole time.
“They helped me stick with it and I’m so glad I did,” she said. “I can say without a doubt that I wouldn’t have been able to run like that without [my teammates] and their support.”
Though injuries hindered the girls’ performance throughout the season, they were the best when it counted the most. Most of the girls ran personal-bests at states, according to head coach Scott Fickerson.
With such a successful season the Vaqueros are slowly gaining a reputation of always being a top competitor. Bartlett believes it’s because of the athletes of the team.
“This team supports each other every day,” she said. “Whether it’s at 6 a.m. when we all want to sleep, during a race or during difficult workouts, we are all there for each other.”
Just like the women, the men had the same passion and dedication to be as effective as they were.
“I think the reason we were so successful was that we had the drive and the focus to achieve marks we didn’t have any business getting,” said Roberts.
City College finished off the successful season with a bang, and now they will focus on rebuilding and training during the off-season.
