El Camino College's Heather Rosas, at left, and with her team. Read Kirby Lee's story on her below!

ROSAS FOLLOWS IN HER FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS AT EL CAMINO

         Heather Rosas' collegiate career at El Camino College got off to a slow start but the San Pedro High graduate is continuing her father's legacy at the junior college this fall.
         Rosas won the Irvine Invitational at Irvine Regional Park in Orange on Saturday, clocking 19 minutes, 30 seconds over the 3.2-mile course, to lead El Camino to the team title.
        Rosas, whose father Alfredo, the 1992 Long Beach Marathon winner, is the school-record holder in the 10,000 meters in track and Hall of Fame Inductee at El Camino, didn't run during her freshman year because of a lower leg stress fracture.
        She is competing in cross country this fall for the first time since her senior year at San Pedro when she won the 2001 L.A. City Section title. It's been a long road back for Rosas, who resumed training with El Camino in June.
        "I thought I was in shape because I was running on my own," Rosas said. "But sometimes you don't realize when you're running by yourself how slow that you are going. When I started running with (El Camino) in the summer, I realized I was really out of shape."
        It certainly didn't look like it on Saturday. Rosas powered away from runner-up Christina Lara of Mt. San Antonio (19:43) and Rose Serna of Southwestern (19:44) over the relatively flat course over predominately asphalt trails and one major dirt hill.
        Unfortunately, Heather's mother Mary, a Poly High assistant girls cross country coach, wasn't there to watch while accompanying Poly at the Clovis Invitational on Saturday.
        Rosas, along with former San Pedro teammate Cora Webber as El Camino's fifth runner in 22nd, helped the Warriors total 62 points to edge second-place Mt. SAC and third-place Riverside, both of which had 64 points.
        Downey High graduate Maggie Cortez, now competing for Rio Hondo, was 14th to help her team to sixth with 191 points. Long Beach City College was 10th with 248 points, led by Marina Zelden (23:00) in 42nd and defending state 800-meter champion Stacey Livingston (24:24) and Lucia Mota (24:25) in 57th and 58th.
        In the men's competition won by San Bernardino Valley College, LBCC was eighth, paced by Michael Jackson (21:41) in 15th and Nate McDonald (22:04) in 20th over the 4-mile course.

Women
3.2 miles at Irvine Regional Park

Team: 1. El Camino 62; 2. Mt. San Antonio 64; 3. Riverside 64; 4. Southwestern 89; 5. Pasadena 161; 6. Rio Hondo 191; 7. Fullerton 196; 8. Santa Ana 199; 9. Saddleback 224; 10. Long Beach 248; 11. Santiago Canyon 297.
Ind: 1. Heather Rosas (EC) 19:33; 2. Christina Lara (MSAC) 19:43; 3. Rose Serna (Southwestern) 19:44; 4. Luz Valdez (Fullerton) 20:25; 5. Maria Cardenas (MSAC) 20:48; 6. Karian Ortiz (Riverside) 20:54; 7. Becky Cherry (EC) 20:54; 8. Filadelfa Abarca (SA) 20:55; 9. Michelle Acosta (MSAC) 21:03; 10. Celene Reys (Riverside) 21:06; 11. Angella Nanyonyi (Riverside) 21:08; 12. Karissa Holcomb (Riverside) 21:10; 13. Yvonne Li (Southwestern) 21:17; 14. Maggie Cortez (Rio Hondo) 21:17; 15. Janeth Tostado (El Camino) 21:38;

 
Christina Lara of Mt. SAC (left) battled for second place overall on the women's side
while Santiago Canyon's Shane Dougherty was the men's race winner in 20:20!

Men
4.0 miles at Irvine Regional Park

Team: 1. San Bernardino Valley 24; 2. Santiago Canyon 47; 3. Mt. San Antonio 118; 4. Santa Ana 138; 5. Southwestern 142; 6. Riverside 143; 7. El Camino 173; 8. Long Beach 175; 9. Saddleback 249; 10. Victor Valley 303; 11. Golden West 314.
Ind: 1. Shane Dougherty (SC) 20:20; 2. Antonio Jimenez (SBV) 20:21; 3. Jimmy Grabow (SBV) 20:38; 4. J.D. Krawczyk (SC) 20:48; 5. Clayton DUnn (SBV) 21:17; 6. Luis Pescador (SBV) 21:18; 7. Phillip Porter (Saddleback) 21:20; 8. Martin Cedeno (SBV) 21:21; 9. Austin Langley (Riverside) 21:22; 10. Jesus Santana (SBV) 21:22; 11. Matt Cipolla (SC) 21:33; 12. Sal Bautista (EC) 21:34; 13. Robert Nieblas (SC) 21:36; 14. Carlos Gonzalez (MSAC) 21:39; 15. Michael Jackson (LBCC) 21:41.