The Bakersfield College men’s and women’s cross-country teams competed at the State Championships on Nov. 21 in Woodward Park in Fresno. The women placed 14th out of 27 teams and the men placed 18th out of 28 teams.

Sydney Roman was BC’s top finisher in the women’s race, placing 55th out of 211 finishers with a time of 19 minutes 57.5 seconds for 5 kilometers (3.1 miles).

“I just knew that I had to do good, and I did,” she said. “I gave all I had on that course, and it showed off because I had a PR (personal record) which I broke a 20 (minutes) and I’m really happy for that. I’m really happy how I finished the season off.”

Kelly Hartfield finished the race with a time of 20:17.2, taking 77th, and teammate Alyssa-Lynn Paul took 102nd place with a time of 20:38.1.

Southwestern’s Aminat Olowora placed first overall with a time of 17:02.

With 208 participants in the men’s four-mile, BC’s Jacob Franco placed 90th with a time of 22:06.1. Ethan Walker from Canyons placed first with a time of 20:09.8.

“I kind of wanted to break into the 21s (minutes) at Woodward, but I was a couple of seconds shy,” Franco said. “I’m kind of a little bit mad about that, but I’m happy that I came out on top and all the teammates did good. We had a good race and a lot of improvement, and I’m happy about the race.”

Christopher Moreno finished the race with 22:15.9, taking 112th. Teammate Mason Holbrook took 121st place with a time of 22:21.6.

Coach Pam Kelly said, “Our goal was always to qualify for state as a team because our conference is so tough. To get out of our conference is a challenge, to get out of Southern Cal becomes a challenge but not usually as big as a challenge as getting out of our conference. I think they had a fairly good year. A year we can work on building on and be excited about.”