Starting the season with silver and continuing to gain a gold, the men’s cross country team consistently ranks high at each meet this season, finishing third place overall at the Golden West Invite.

The next stop for the Warriors will be at Irvine Regional Park to compete in the Irvine Invitational Saturday morning.

The Irvine Invitational will have some very good teams in competition, with the likes of Mt. San Antonio and L.A. Trade Tech.

“We should be ready to go, even though we are kind of mentally and physically tired,” coach Dean Lofgren said. “We will be running to win this meet on Saturday.”

Last Saturday, the Warriors went to Central Park in Huntington Beach to compete in the Golden West Invitational.

The Warriors ran against tough teams, especially L.A. Trade Tech, American River, Mt. SAC, and Diablo Valley, who were all some of the top teams last year.

The team finished in third place with a combined team point total of 116. Southwestern College finished second with 104 points, and Diablo Valley College finished first with 86 points.

Still, the Warriors believe they can improve for future meets.

“I was satisfied with our team’s performance, but the team was not satisfied,” Lofgren said. “That is the sign of a good group that wants to get better.”

Being the top runner for this team in the first two meets of the season, Jason Hanakeawe finished 16th overall in the four-mile run with a time of 20:45, which was one second slower than his teammate Daniel Villanueva, who finished 15th overall at 20:44.

Villanueva’s time of 20:44 was ninth best in EC’s history on the Central Park course, while Hanakeawe’s time of 20:45 was the 10th best in EC history.