Camacho and Ochoa Sweep Top Spots at Conference Championship

Heading into this year's Coast Conference Championship, Hartnell College has had the previous eight individual champions and looked to extend the streak to nine. Returning champion Sofia Camacho became just the second repeat champion in the last 20 years with her victory. She covered the Crystal Springs 2.96 mile course in 18:44. That moved the North Salinas graduate to ninth fastest all-time in program history. Hartnell has been competing at Crystal Springs since 1980. Right behind Camacho was much-improved sophomore Ashley Ochoa in 18:48. Ochoa shaved an impressive 1:11 off her time posted earlier in the season. That mark makes Ochoa the twelfth fastest all-time and joins an exclusive club of women in Hartnell's history to run the course in under 19 minutes. Both Camacho and Ochoa will head into next week's Northern California Championship in Fortuna with the opportunity to repeat their All-Region honors. In 2021, Camacho was the overall champion and Ochoa ninth. 

As a team, the Panthers continued a thirteen year streak of placing no lower than second in the conference championship by scoring 37 points, just 7 shy of winner DeAnza College. Five freshmen made up the remainder of the team lead by Greenfield graduate Maria Garcia in eleventh (22:06). Ilianna Martinez was thirteenth in 22:33 to earn All-Conference honors. Lapis Hernandez was eighteenth (23:25) and Jade Pimentel (23:47) in twentieth. 

The Panthers will look to make it thirteen years in a row qualifying to the CCCAA State Championship next Saturday, November 5th in Fortuna California.