Sports

Moussa Qualifies for World Cross Country Championships

The Arcadia senior places sixth in the men's junior race Saturday at the USA Cross Country National Championship in San Diego.

Arcadia senior Ammar Moussa is headed back to the World Cross Country Championships. On Saturday, Moussa placed sixth in the 8 kilometer men's junior race with a time of 25 minutes, 20 seconds to qualify for Team USA in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain on March 20.

Moussa qualified for the same race last year, which was held in Poland.

Moussa was not the only Arcadia runner to make an impact Saturday as Apaches coach Jim O'Brien's USATF club team "O'Brien's Army" won the team competition with a perfect score of 10. While many of the runners who competed in San Diego are in college, O'Brien said that colleges do not register as USATF clubs eligible for team awards.

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Eric Garibay finished in 24th place with a time of 26:09; Allen Leung took 47th (26:53); and Ben Hsueh closed out the scoring with a 55th place time of 27:06.

Ryan Vargas (64th, 27:34) and William Tsai (72nd, 28:00) also ran as a part of O'Brien's "A" team.

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O'Brien's "B" team earned third place and runners included: Esmond Wei (68th, 27:48); Zack Marriott (73rd, 28:03); Francis Lee (75th, 28:20); Charlie Shen (77th, 28:55); and Mitchell Pratt (79th, 29:15).

Pratt, a sophomore, was the youngest runner in the race.

In the women's 6K junior race, Arcadia's Catrina McAlister finished in 13th place with a time of 22:46. McAlister finished one spot shy of qualifying for the 2011 NACAC Cross Country Championships in Tobago on Feb. 19, but there is a chance that she will get to compete in the event if another runner elects to drop out of the competition.


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