Kimberly Pena pulled away from the field after the first 1,000 meters, and the San Bernardino Valley College women's cross country team placed six runners in the top 14 of the field as the Wolverines won the inaugural Inland Empire Athletic Conference Championship, held Friday at Chaffey College.

The Wolverines finished the event with 37 points, tying the host Panthers on points. But the tiebreaker procedure - the Wolverines' top three runners beat Chaffey's top three runners - gave the title to San Bernardino Valley, it's second conference championship in a row.

Pena finished the 5K race in a time of 20 minutes, 45.6 seconds, a full 1:13 faster than Chaffey's Svetlana Martin, who finished second.

"Pena dropped the hammer, and it was over for the individual title," said SBVC coach Eric Abrams. "But it was behind her where the drama was happening."

A pair of late passes of Chaffey runners by Jayda Martinez and Jessica Aguilera turned the tide for SBVC. Jayda Martinez crossed the line in fifth place for the Wolverines, clocking in at 22:38.7, with Aguilera finishing behind her at 22:46.9.

A trio of Wolverines finished in a pack to place 12th through 14th. Ximena Martinez clocked in a 24:47.6, with Megan Knox finishing at 25:02.7 and Emily Lopez at 25:13.4. With Knox and Lopez finishing ahead of College of the Desert's fourth place runner helped push the Wolverines into the tie and championship.

"I am so incredibly proud of how hard these women fought for this," Abrams said. "And what a nice way to reward their efforts."