Glendale Teams Run Away With Moorpark Titles

A Glendale College runner took a wrong turn for the second consecutive year while leading the Moorpark cross-country invitational Friday, but both the Glendale men’s and women’s teams came away with team titles.

The men, buoyed by Hugo Allan Garcia’s course-record time of 20 minutes 51 seconds over the four-mile course, won with 59 points. Glendale’s Nick Lugo set the previous record of 20:59 in 1988.

Ventura (194), Canyons (223) and Moorpark (319) placed sixth, eighth and eleventh, respectively.

Nicole Jimenez (seventh) and Sophia Hill (12th) guided Glendale (72) past Santa Monica (129) in the women’s meet.

Ruth Viramontes of Rancho Santiago held off Jean Harvey for the individual title, covering the 5,000-meter course in 20:22.

In the men’s race, Garcia led Jose Pina of Long Beach City by 20 meters with less than a mile remaining but took a wrong turn and went 75 meters off the course. But Garcia was able to recover and swept past Pina with 250 meters left.

Last year, Jimenez took a wrong turn and was disqualified.