For the past two races Heather Rosas has never known the sight or taste of dust.

She was victorious while leading EC to successive wins, but from the start of the race last Friday, she knew it was going to be a challenge.

“I was going pretty hard (with the front pack), but they were pretty fast. Orange Coast is really good,” the freshman from San Pedro High said. “But I was really happy with my time, because I’ve always done badly on my times here before.”

EC placed third out of 36 teams at the Mt. SAC Invitational Oct. 18, on an extremely hot and dry day. EC was only four points away from Southwestern (136), which took second.

Orange Coast, the No. 1 team in the state, dominated the race from start to finish with 51 points.

Runners aim for championship

EC will compete for the top five spots at El Dorado Park Saturday in Long Beach, in hopes of reaching the SoCal Championships Nov. 7, where it will get another chance at ending OC’s two-and-a-half-year string of victories.

“Right now, Orange Coast is the best team in the state,” coach Dean Lofgren said. “Obviously, it’s a pretty close second, third, fourth and fifth among us, Southwestern, Riverside, Mt. SAC and Ventura. On any given day, it can be one of those teams winning.”

Assistant coach Sean Sheil said the team might need a small miracle to catch Orange Coast because they’re very good.

“We can definitely run better as a team. We’ll have to have a combination of us running our best race and them faltering a bit. I think we can be the second-best team in the state on any given day. Even on a day like this we were third,” he said.

EC went to Mt. SAC without Jennifer Morrison, a top five runner. But the Warriors managed to remain competitive.

“The good thing about our women’s team is that we have depth, so if someone is out or if someone struggles, we’re able to stay close together,” Sheil said.

Rosas blazes to best Mt. SAC time

Rosas’ 18:50 was her best time on the course – good for a close fourth place.

“We have our conference chamionship here in a couple of weeks, so I wasn’t going to go all out,” Rosas said. “I was a little intimidated because it’s a fast and hilly course, so I was very happy with what I did.”

Evelyn Lopez finished 27th with a time of 20:25, Becky Cherry crossed 31st at 20:37, Cora Webber’s 20:49 time was good for 37th, and Dennise Warnecke took 48th, 21:09.

“Evelyn, Becky and I tried to stay as close as possible; we had a good finish and we were strong on the hill,” Webber said of the three-mile course.

“I was trying to get my legs going. Sometimes you’ve gotta get a little fire in you to get going. It’s hard because we only have a couple of coaches cheering us on, so we sometimes have to motivate ourselves. But they’re great support, bouncing all over the course, yelling at us and pushing us harder.”

Conference championship bid looms large

The runners will get a rush of confidence when Morrison is back in her running shoes.

She couldn’t run at Mt. SAC because of a chemistry lab.

But Lofgren said he’d much rather have her out early in the season, than later. His focus now is winning an SCC championship.

Lofgren said, “The battle for the title will be very close,” referring to EC, Mt. SAC, ELAC, Cerritos, and Pasadena striding for the conference championship.