Local Digest: Villaescusa leads Stanislaus runners

Alex Villaescusa capped his collegiate cross country career with a 20th-place finish to earn all-West Region honors and lead the Cal State Stanislaus men’s team to a 10th place team finish at the NCAA Division II championship.

Villaescusa completed the 10,000-meter run at Amend Park in 31 minutes, 38.07 seconds. Teammates Michael Mrgudic (32:38.36), Alex Reyes (32:46.51), David Rosales (33:04.11) and Jesus Ortiz (33:15.51) scored for the Warriors. Gina Wood completed the 6,000-meter course in 22:46.76 to finish 38th as Stanislaus grabbed 14th place in the women’s team standings.

MJC women 18th in state – Led by sophomore Dana Pollard, who placed 52nd individually, the Pirates finished 18th at the State Championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park. Pollard ran the 3.1-mile course in 19:34. Karina Ruiz was 78th at 20:00. The Pirates were fourth-best among Northern California teams. The MJC men finished 26th as freshman Isaac Gonzalez was 84th individually after his 21:46.7 over 4 miles.

Basketball

MJC men settle for 4th – The MJC men (2-4) were beaten by Las Positas 72-63 and settled for fourth place at Mendocino College’s John Hogue Memorial Tournament.

This story was originally published November 22, 2014 at 11:06 PM with the headline "Local Digest: Villaescusa leads Stanislaus runners."