Mesa College moved up in the polls for the men’s cross-country state rankings. Previously ranked No. 1 in only Southern California, Mesa College is now the No. 1 team in California. Mesa earned the top spot in state with their victory at the Howard Brubaker Invitational on Oct. 11.

The Olympians earned their second consecutive victory of the season at the four-mile Brubaker Invitational held in Irvine, Calif. The invitational consisted of 17 teams including rival San Bernardino Valley who finished shortly behind in second place.

Ironically, the final individual standings for this Oct. 11 meet were exactly identical to those of the Foothill Invitational, held back on Sept. 27. Mesa had a cumulative total of six athletes finish in the top 50 four being in the top 10.

Muluken Beressa earned his second first place finished of the season followed by Marcos Corona and Mike Denman who finished third and fourth for the second consecutive race.

Beressa defeated Carlos Perez of San Bernardino Valley College by less than half a step. Beressa and Perez finished neck and neck with the exact same race time as they crossed the finish line.

Notable finishes include Barrett Tilley (10th, 21:17), Bernardo Bahena (22nd, 21:17) and Michael Gonia (41st, 21:48).

Mesa Men’s Cross-country will continue to prepare for their next meet. On the eve of Halloween Mesa College will defend their No. 1 status as they aim for the conference championship. The Pacific Coast Conference Championship will be held at Southwestern College in Chula Vista on Oct. 30.