BY: ANGEL CANEZ
Katherine Bruno outpaced the competition again winning her third 5K in a row. This time across state lines on Oct.12 at the Mt. SAC Community College Invitational in Walnut California, with a time of 18:13.0 seconds. Mary Siml freshmen came in fifth place with a time of 19:22.0 making that back to back top five finishes for her and third meet in a row Pimas had two women runners finish in the top seven. The Men’s trip out west wasn’t as fruitful, they finished the meet in the middle of the pack finishing in 6th out of 14 teams. The Men’s leading runner was Freshmen Luis Tenzon, he crossed the line in 15th in the 8k with a time of 22:08.0
Oct.6 Mesa Community College Thunderbird ClassicThe Men’s and Women’s, Cross Country teams hit the ground running, to start off the second half of the season. Pima put in their most impressive performance of in the Mesa Community College Thunderbird Classic at John D. Riggs Stadium on Oct.6, as both teams finished the meet in second place. Katherine Bruno Sophomore added to her already her impressive season finishing first. This came after finishing number one at the ACCAC championship on Sept. 26. Both wins were in the 5K.
“I’m extremely excited and super positive about the second half of my season. I really want to see how fast I can go. I just need to keep my head forward, training hard, and keep doing what I need to do to meet my goals. It’s mainly being mindful of what needs to be done to be successful.” Bruno said by email before the Mt. SAC CC Invitational.
The victory earned Bruno the NJCAA Division I National Athlete of the Week award for the second time, on Oct.9 becoming Pima’s first cross country runner to achieve that. Bruno received her first honor on Oct. 9 of last season. I’m just taking it day by day. I was surprised winning … All I can say is that I have faith in my training and that I’m ready for anything. said Bruno by email. Bruno one upped her personal best time in the 5K again crossing the finish line in first place with a personal best 18:09.4 seconds. Freshmen Mary Siml had her best run to date crossed the finish line in 3rd place at 19:16.0 seconds. Pima placed two of the top three runners, but the women’s team also put together there most complete team run to date as they had four runners place in the top 15. As Cindy Corrales placed 11th with a time of 20: 30.7 seconds and Kaylen Fox crossed with a time of 20 minutes and 45 seconds to lock up a 15 place finish. The nationally ranked 14th Women’s team ended the meet with 41 points good enough for a second place finish and five behind meet host and winner MCC 36 points. The 20th ranked men’s cross country team racked up 63 points on the day to finish also in second place. They had three runners cross the finish line in the top 16 in the 8K race with Luis Tenzon leading the charge placing 4th crossing the finish line at 26:56.5 seconds. Teammate Juan Miranda followed with a time of 27:24.7 seconds crossing the finish line at 15 and teammate Jeffrey Klopf followed closely behind finishing 16 with 27:32.7 seconds. The Aztecs will get some time to rest as the next meet met will be on Monday Oct .29 in the NJCAA region 1 championship at Freestone Park in Gilbert Az, race starts at 9 a.m.