The lady Pirates cross country team will not defend its state championship as Coast fell to Glendale College by 37 points at the 2009 California Community College State Championship at Woodward Park in Fresno Saturday (Nov. 21).

Glendale finished first at 43 points and Mt. San Antonio College finished third with 92 points.

To lead the lady Pirates once again was sophomore standout Kimone Hewitt, who finished in third with a 18:05.30 mark.

Coast's Hillary Labelle finished 16th (18:52.24), Jane Kerner finished 22nd (18:59.93), Andrea Gayton-Jacob finished 23rd (19:05.74), Sara Toberty finished 28thh (19:16.83), Andrea Guerra finished 42nd (19:37.02) and Margaret McDuffee finished 62nd (19:58.57).

The men's squad also finished in second place Saturday.

San Bernardino Valley won the state championship with a 67 and OCC finished 66 points behind with a 133 to finish in second.

Third place finisher was Glendale College at 164.

Coast was led by sophomore standout Russell Westphal, who finished 13th with a mark of 20:41.94.

Eric Dyson finished 24th with 20:55.35, Sergio Olivarrias finished 29th with 20:58.04, Pedro Saucedo finished 31st with 20:59.68, Jake Dawson finished 44th with 21:10.20, Francisco Baquero finished 63rd with 21:24.30 and Jorge Torres at 124th with 22:05.03.

[Photos from the Orange Empire Conference finals and courtesy of Hank Schellingerhout]

Orange Coast College's cross country teams proved Friday that both men's and women's squads are the team to beat for the 2009 state championship.

At the Orange Empire Conference Cross Country Tournament in Huntington Beach's Central Park, the men's squad finished first with 26 points - beating out Riverside Community College (53) and Fullerton College (75).

The Pirates were led by Russel Westphal's (right) second place finish of 20:30.6 in the men's four-mile run.

Coast's Jake Dawson finished third (20:39.9), Eric Dyson fourth (20:47.0), Sergio Olivarrias eighth (21:07.3), Jorge Torres ninth (21:07.9) and Francisco Baquero tenth (21:10.9).

The lady Pirates finished first in the women's 5K run with 18 points beating Riverside (52) and Fullerton (96) easily.

Top three runners in the event were all from Coast - first playing being Kimone Hewitt's (left) 18:31.4.

In fact, seven out of the top 10 runners were lady Pirates.

Coast's Jane Kerner finished second (18:39.9), Margaret McDuffee third (18:48.5), Hillary Labelle fifth (19:02.3), Andrea Guerra seventh (19:17.2), Sara Toberty eight (19:22.5) and Andrea Gayton-Jacob ninth (19:28.5).

All times and results can be viewed at DirectAthletics.com.

[Photo courtesy of Hank Schellingerhout]

While most students enjoy the weekend, four Orange Coast College athletics program will be hard at work.

The men's and women's cross country teams will be at the Foothill Invitational in Chino's Prado Park, starting at 9 a.m.

Pick up the Sept. 30 issue of the Coast Report to read about the cross country teams' performances this year. The "Sports Roundup" is not available online.

The women's water polo team will be on its second day in the Cuesta Tournament. Despite a 8-19 record last year (2-4 in conference), the lady Pirates are optimistic about this season because of its sophomore returners.

The Pirates football take its perfect 4-0 record and opens the Orange Empire Conference play at Fullerton College, starting at 6 p.m.

Last year, the Pirates started off 4-0 but lost six-straight to finish 4-6.

Head coach Mike Taylor said, "(Quarterback Kyle Manning's) got to get a little better for us to have an opportunity. (Opponents) are going to load up with nine guys in the box to stop Ray Holley."

Holley leads the Pirates in rushing yards and touchdowns - 177 yards per game and 8 TDs - and is the No. 1 ranked tailback in the state.

I'm sorry for the mix up.

In the last issue of the Coast Report, I made a graphic box that said additional fall previews will be available in this link. [Also, click on this link to see the fall preview for men and women's cross country, football, women's volleyball and men's water polo]

Someone e-mailed to me at coastreportsports@gmail.com that additional fall previews were not up.

I got two words: my bad.

I hope it's not too late - since the fall season has not started yet.

The fall previews for men and women's soccer, men's basketball and women's water polo is on the blog below.

Once again, I'm sorry for the delay.