Seven in a Row for the Panther Women

Heading into this year's Coast Conference Championship, the Hartnell College had two streaks they were looking to extend. Running on the familiar trails of Toro Park, the women head were looking to extend their team championship streak to seven in a row dating back to 2013. The other streak was the individual champion currently at six in a row heading into Wednesday's race. Both streaks were extended easily and with a solid core of freshmen women on the squad, both streaks look to be in good shape heading into the future. 

Sophomore Daniela Salazar was second as a freshman but had yet to get fully comfortable with the layout at Toro Park. Despite having qualified to the CIF State Championship in high school as a senior on the same course, last fall she was unable to post a personal best on the home course. Running with the same focus that saw her place third overall at the Northern California Championship and seventh at the CCCAA State Championship as a freshman, she finally got the confidence boosting performance she was looking for. Salazar became the seventh consecutive Hartnell College woman to cross first in the conference championship race in 18:50. The time was 15 seconds faster than she posted back on October 4 at the Northern California Preview Meet on the same course. She was helped by teammate Shantal Martinez who was a close second in 18:52. Freshman Valeria Gomez-Lozano was third in 19:20. Re-emerging star freshman Faith Mora was sixth, fellow frosh Mariah Changco was seventh, Nerina Campos repeated her conference honor in eighth, and freshman Joanna Macias as ninth. Freshman Alondra Carreon was eleventh to be the eighth Hartnell woman to receive All-Conference honors. The Panthers scored 17 points to easily win the team title. With four freshman in the top eleven, the foundation for next year's squad is strong as the will look to make it eight titles in a row and eight consecutive individual champions. 

Next up for the Panthers is the Northern California Championship on Friday, November 8th at Toro Park. The women's 3 mile race will be at 10:00am. The Panthers head into the race having won eight team titles since 1984, the most of any Northern California program. Hartnell College is still seeking its first individual champion and Daniela Salazar is the only runner this season to defeat defending champion Julia Gonzalez of Diablo Valley College. She bested Gonzalez by 3 seconds at the Chabot Invitational back on September 14th.