Yotuel Garcia Wins Individual Titles to Lead Men's XC at ACCAC/Region I Championships

Saturday, October 29, 2022 - 4:25 pm | Dylan Kessler

Coolidge, Ariz. - The Thunderbirds men's cross country team was led by an impressive effort from Yotuel Garcia at ACCAC/NJCAA Region I Cross Country Championship meet on Saturday.

For the first time in its history, the ACCAC and NJCAA Region I Championships were combined into one race. Scoring was separated to determine the overall conference champion along with the Division I & II regional champions. Mesa was scored in the Region I, Div. II results.

Garcia won the individual titles for both the ACCAC and Region I, DII with a time of 24:28.4 on the 8000-meter course. The T-Birds ended up third overall in the ACCAC scoring with 47 points and second overall in the Region I, DII scoring with 31 points.

Central Arizona won the ACCAC team title with 30 points while Paradise Valley won the Region I, DII team title with 25 points.

"I'm very proud of how Yotuel ran and competed today," said Head Coach Dan Pescador. "He took immediate control of the race early and never looked back. Javier had an amazing race today as well. His time wasn't where he wanted it, but it really showed a lot of heart and competed until the very end. Extremely proud to see how he finished today. Overall, it was an okay day. Things didn't go our way as a whole but I'm still proud of their efforts. Now we just need to regroup and get ready for nationals."

Individually, all seven runners that competed for the T-Birds earned regional honors while four of them also earned conference honors.

Yotuel Garcia: All-ACCAC First Team (1st - 24:28.4) and All-Region First Team (1st - 24:28.4)

Javier Garcia: All-ACCAC First Team (5th - 25:34.2) and All-Region First Team (2nd - 25:34.2)

Hayden Gelder: All-ACCAC Second Team (12th - 26:19.8 PB) and All-Region Second Team (8th - 26:19.8 PB)

Joshua Lumpkin: All-ACCAC Second Team (13th - 26:22.2) and All-Region Second Team (9th - 26:22.2)

Yael Caballero Ferro: All-Region Third Team (11th - 26:29)

Greyson Akers: All-Region Third Team (12th - 26:46)

Wyatt Williams: All-Region Third Team (14th - 27:09)

The men's team will wrap up their season at the NJCAA DII National Championship meet on November 12th in Tallahassee, Florida.

Click HERE to view the complete results of the ACCAC/Region I Championships.