The San Bernardino Valley women's cross country team competed at the Redlands Invitational for their first tuneup in preparation for the Southern California preview in two weeks. After losing their top five runners to graduaton, coach Eric Abrams was expecting his team to be in a rebuilding mode this season.
But Saturday, there were signs of promise from some incoming freshmen.
Freshman Alyssa Benavides (Redlands HS) led the pack for the Wolverines, finishing 11th overall with a time of 17 minutes, 55 seconds over the 4.5 K course. Freshman Brandy Ayala (Big Bear HS) finished just outside the top 20, ending in 21st with a time of 18:45.
Rounding out the top five for SBVC were three more freshman: Kiani Fernandes (Beaumont HS) 20:22 34th, Lilly Armendariz (Oak Hills HS) 20:54 37th and Darilyn Hernandez (Rim of the World) 21:41 40th
Next up is the Palomar Invitational which will be a great early-season test against many community colleges within our conference and around Southern California.