The Bakersfield College cross-country team competed in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Oct. 15 and will be participating in the WSC finals on Oct. 26.

Then men’s cross-country team finished 18th overall with a total score of 496 and a team time of 2:06:09.

Dave Frickel, head coach for the men’s cross-country team, was pleased with the outcome, but he knows they have a lot to work on.

“We performed well, but it was a learning experience,” said Frickel. “A lot of them never experienced Mt. SAC, which is considered a grueling course because of its hills.

“The next course we’ll run on should be a much easier course. It shouldn’t be as challenging for the conference meet.”

Jorge Perez was the first of the men’s team to cross the finish time at 76th overall out of 203 total runners, with a time of 23:35.

“I think I performed pretty good, but it was a pretty hard course,” said Perez. “Just the uphill, the downhill helped us a lot. I didn’t meet my expectations.”

Perez was followed by Santiago Lazarit, who finished 108th for BC with a time of 24:34.

The women’s cross-country team finished 11th overall with a score of 316 and a total team time of 1:48:38.

Clara Escutia finished first for the BC women’s team, placing 55th with a time of 20:57. Blanca Perez finished with the same time as Escutia.

Pam Kelley, the head coach of the women’s team, liked the way her team performed during the Mt. SAC meet.

“I thought the team did really well. They finished 11th overall out of 22 schools,” said Kelley. “Three of the teams above them were from Arizona, so that puts us in a much better position. ”

“We probably ran our best meet since the opening of the season,” she said.

Kelley said that she will be getting the team ready for the conference meet by making them run distance and doing several speed runs.

Frickel is confident in his team and is getting the team ready for the conference meet.

“We have about a week and a half, so we’re going to get another good week of training,” Frickel said.