Lady Panthers Historic Second at State Championship

November 23, 2015

After equaling the highest team place in school history last fall, the Lady Panthers set their sights on a top three trophy at this year's CCCAA State Championship at Woodward Park. With early season success at the Fresno Invitational, Mt. SAC Invitational, and repeat wins at the Coast Conference and Northern California Regional Championship, the ladies were still considered the third best program in the state. After 3.1 miles of racing on Saturday, the Lady Panthers proved they were the second best team and achieved their goal of returning to Salinas with the first ever CCCAA Championship trophy. They upset state ranked number two College of the Canyons, who had beat the Panthers handily at Mt. SAC, 117-121 on the outstanding performances of all seven ladies who ran.

Sophomore Malena Grover, who prepped at Salinas High School, achieved her goal of placing in the top three overall in the championship coming in only after repeat champion Aminat Olowora of Southwestern College and the Norcal champion Jenica Dodge of American River College. Grover's third place is the highest individual finish since 10,000 meter school record Women's All American holder Kathy Lenno got second place in 1999 when the state championship was moved away from the Woodward Park course to San Louis Obispo for one year. Her time of 18:07 broke her own school record by 38 seconds set last year and she repeated as All-American moving up ten spots in this year's race to her 13th last year. Sophomore Rachel Shimabukuro concluded her Hartnell career with her finest race earning All-American honors in 13th and with a lifetime best 5k personal best of 18:43. Shimabukuro was 22nd last year and also dipped under Grover's old record of 18:45. The former San Benito High School standout also earned All-American honors last spring in the 3000 meter steeplechase. Shimabukuro also finished as the fourth Northern California female moving up one spot from her placing two weeks ago. Fellow sophomores Lizette Garcia and Nancy Rodriguez placed 29th and 30th overall in the same time 19:24. Garcia, one of the most improved runners in the state, lowered her time from September on the course by 1:06. The duo placed as the seventh and eighth Norcal females. Freshman Yessika Mayo completed the Lady Panther scoring in 52nd in 19:50. She was the eleventh overall Norcal regional finisher giving the Lady Panthers five of the top eleven, a better score than they had two weeks ago at the Norcal championship. Sophomore Maria Rodriguez (20:19) and Freshman Yvette Felix (20:28) placed 80th and 90th out of 211 runners. For the sophomores, they leave Hartnell as double conference and regional champions and with two top four team finishes at the state championship, a record unprecedented in school history. In addition, in 2016 they will look to become the first women's team to win three consecutive regional championships for the first time in 1989-1991 when West Valley College achieved the feat.