Chaffin's 8th place leads PC women to 2nd in PCAC meet

SAN BERNARDINO (10-20-2018) – Led by Maia Chaffin, a freshman out of Escondido High School, Palomar finished second behind team champion San Bernardino Valley College in the women's division at the Pacific Coast Conference Cross Country finals that were contested on Saturday at Cal State San Bernardino's course.

Chaffin ran the 5K course in 20:19.1 in a race that was won by San Bernardino Valley's Alissa Johnson in 18:57.0. Johnson was followed across the finish line by second-place Sabrina Benavides in 19:27.4 and third-place Courtney Clifford from Cuyamaca in 19:39.3.

Palomar's other scoring runners in the race were Hanna Lopez (who ran a 20:46.8 to place 12th in a field of 51 scoring runners and 13th among 62 contestants in the race) freshman Cassandra Ramos (20:56.2 for 13th place among scoring runners and 14th overall); freshman Jolie Beentjes (22:05.4 for 18th place among scoring runners and 22nd overall); and freshman Lessli Maldonado (22:11.1 for 20th place among scoring runners and 24th overall).

San Bernardino Valley scored 20 points to win the team title, followed by the second-place Comets with 71 points, third-place Imperial Valley with 93 points, fourth-place San Diego Citiy College with 99 points, fifth-place Cuyamaca with 111 points and sixth-place College with 130 points.

Southwestern didn't have enough runners to score in the race.