Runners tend to like the course at the Golden West Invitational at Central Park in Huntington Beach.  It features few hills and a lot of pavement, which typically makes for fast times.  Indeed, the entire Santa Monica College Women's Cross Country team (at least those of the team who raced) set season bests for the 5K distance. 

With her most even race of the year, Tess Turpin led the Lady Corsairs.  Similar to Tess, Inez Alvarez did an excellent job of pacing and took the second for the team.  Areli Rios attacked the first mile, and though she paid the price later, she still held on for the three spot.  Making her collegiate debut, Ashley Bootesaz finished with a strong third mile, and should soon be challenging her teammates ahead.  Brenda Roche rounded out the team scoring with another evenly paced race.  Aisha Daryanini has finally developed the fitness to stay competitive over the whole course.  Unlike last week when her knees significantly limited her performance, Erika Derks put on a good show for her mother.  Training is also beginning to pay off for Jennifer Cortez and Diana Gutierrez who were able to improve their times by several minutes.

Given that its two top runners were out nursing sore lower legs, the Lady Corsairs made a respectable showing at the Golden West Invitational in Huntington Beach.  With a field featuring many of the top Southern California teams, SMC ended up 13^th out of 17 teams, and only a point out of twelfth place.  Looking at the results, it seems a healthy SMC squad could have easily placed in the top ten here, and with two weeks before the next meet, the team has the chance to get all its runners back in working order.