PVCC Puma Press

What do great champions do to start a new season in hopes of defending their national championship?

They come back and win their conference championship meet in dominating fashion.

With a fourth place finish in their first meet, the men’s cross country team of PVCC traveled to Tucson Sept. 25 and began their run towards back-to-back national championships. For starters, the men finished with 10 runners in the top 12. They scored a combined low of 20 points, with the closest school 45 points back in Central Arizona College. The Puma’s 20 points was one point better than last year’s finish of 21.

Six Pumas tied for second with a time of 25:59: George Alex, Aaron Sherf, Tailhar Hasson, Denis Patrick, Kyle Glass and Solomon Bennett. Robert Evans finished in eighth, Luis Figueroa in ninth, Jamie Gonzalez in 11th and Alex Evens in 12th, only 1:14 behind the second place runners.

“Our men did a great job of following their race plan, running together in a pack and looked great,” said Coach David Barney.

Out of the 15 spots available for the All-Conference team, 10 of them were given to the PVCC runners who finished in the top 12.

“It’s always nice to win meets, and it’s an honor for our guys to receive those awards!” added Barney.

Following their conference dominance, the men’s and women’s teams traveled to Illinois for Border Wars, a meet hosted by Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. The men took their second straight win with a 25 point advantage over runner-up Central Missouri. George Alex was the first Puma to cross the finish line 12 seconds behind the winner and just under 26 seconds in front of fellow Puma Tailhar Hasson.

Barney only took his top three women, so the ladies were not scored as a team. Katrina Lee finished 12th, Erin Sesemann finished 13th and Amanda Burton finished 18th overall.