Palomar College Cross Country teams suit up for yet another fall season.
The season started out on Sept. 2 at Carbon Canyon Park in Brea for the Mark Covert Classic. It was filled with schools all over So Cal ranging from junior colleges to Division 1 schools with a few club teams.
Last year at this meet the men’s team placed 12th led by Mark Ybarra, but this year they have to go without him as he transferred to San Francisco. They didn’t place in the top 10 this meet, but coach Hugh Gerhardt wasn’t expecting so much from this meet.
“This meet was just to get the runners ready for the upcoming season,” said Gerhardt.
This race was eight kilometers, which is longer than any other race, so Gerhardt is confident they will be better in the upcoming meet.
Sophomore Matthew De Haven finished first for the Comets running a 28:52.1 improving his time from last year by 16 seconds. He will look to continue to improve his times from last years as he tries to lead the Comets this season.
For the women’s team they have new head coach Sonia Rodriguez as she looks forward to her start here at Palomar. The women’s team only has two returners from last year’s team, so they have a lot of rebuilding to do.
They also competed at the Mark Covert Classic, but also didn’t place as high as they would like as they fell out the top 16. Freshman Marrissa Talle finished first for the Comets at a time of 23:05.1.
The Comets next meet will be the So Cal Preview at College of the Canyons on Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. as they look to bounce back from their previous meet.