Lopez leads Palomar in Brubaker Invitational with 13th-place finish

ORANGE (10-05-2018) – In a field of 97 runners from 13 teams, Palomar sophomore Hannah Lopez placed 13th among 78 scoring runners in the women's race on Friday in the Brubaker Invitational cross country meet at Irvine Regional Park.

Her performance led the Comets to a fifth-place team finish out of 13 community college teams.

Lopez, who won the Coach Downey Classic one week earlier at Morley Field in San Diego, ran the 5K course in Friday's meet with a 20:09.4. Saddleback's Rebecca Ruiz placed first with a 19:08.7 time.

The Comets' other scorers were Maia Chaffin in 33rd place among scoring runners with a 21:38.8, Brianna Frain in 39th place, Leslie Maldonado in 45th and Jolie Beentjas in 46th.

Saddleback won the women's meet with 41 points, followed among the top five teams by second-place Mt. SAC (76 points), third-place San Bernardino Valley (124 points), fourth-place Orange Coast (121 points) and the Comets with 165 points.

In the men's race, Mario Tasvina was the top Palomar finisher out of 94 scoring runners, running the 4.0-mile course in 22:12.7. Mt. SAC's Salvadore Capetillo won the race in 20:03.8.

There were 153 runners total in the men's race.

Mt. SAC, placing four runners in the top five, won the men's meet with 22 points, followed by second-place Cuyamaca, which won a tie-breaker from third-place San Bernardino Valley, both with 87 points.

The Comets finished 12th among 14 teams with 346 points.

Palomar's men's and women's teams will be back at Irvine Regional Park this upcoming Saturday, Oct. 13, to run in the Vanguard Invitational.