Mesa College captured its' sixth consecutive Pacific Coast Athletic Conference men's cross country championship at Balboa Park on Thursday, October 29. The dominating performance was achieved with a near perfect score of 18 points. Nine San Diego Mesa athletes made the All-Conference team of the top fifteen finishers.
Leading the way for Mesa were Dylan Marx and Aaron Thomas. Trailing pre-race favorite Ansu Sowa from Southwestern College for the first three miles on the tough four mile course in Balboa Park, Dylan and Aaron made their move together on the famous (and tough) Powder Hill. Quickly storming to the lead, Dylan and Aaron both ran a strong final mile over the hills to finish 1-2. Dylan Marx captured the conference crown with time of 21:35, with Aaron not far behind in second place with a time of 21:43. Sowa held on for third place but not without a threat from Mesa's third runner, Eric Brown, who closed quickly, finishing fourth with a time of 22:16. Freshman Carlos Bojorquez (5th,22:31 ) and Eddie Ramos (6th, 22:35) finished off the scoring for the winning team. Also achieving All-Conference recognition were Arturo Canela (8th,22:56), Temesgen Petros (12th,23:11), Sal Salinas (14th, 23:34) and Michael Gonia (15th,23:34).
The men's team now heads to the Southern California Championships with the goal of qualifying for the state championships.