The Valley men's cross country competed in their second race of the year at the So Cal Preview at Mission Bay Park on Sept. 13 and Coach Jim Ratigan was happy with the efforts of the Valley harriers.

"For our first four miler of the year I am extremely happy with our performance," said Ratigan. "This was a tough course and featured all of the top teams in So Cal. Our guys took 6th overall (5th for So Cal) and were only 44 points out of third place."

San Diego Mesa won the meet with 52 points, with Mt. SAC second at 56 and American River third at 93. Twenty-eight teams competed in the preview meet, with SBVC scoring 188 - only ten points behind fifth place El Camino with 178. 

Leading SBVC was freshmen Elvis Rojas King (Beaumont) who took eighth overall at 21 minutes, 39 seconds on the four-mile, all-grass course. Rojas was the third fastest freshman and was only 15 seconds back of first place. Right behind Rojas King was freshman Kevin Quinteros (Fontana AB MIller), who clocked in at 21:53.

The next three Valley scorers were Alvaro Heredia (Rialto) 49th at 22:47, Jose Escalante (Jurupa Valley) 60th at 22:59 and Fernando Duenas (Canyon Springs) 66th at 23:06. Eddie Perez finished sixth for Valley in 72nd at 23:19.

"We have work to do no doubt, but I like where we are. We have two of the top freshmen in the state in Rojas King and Quinteros, and Eddie Perez will surprise people in eight weeks when we race at So Cal finals," said Ratigan.

Valley races this Saturday, Sept. 21  at the Cal State San Bernardino Coyote Challenge 8K (4.98 miles).