Huerta, Dalton, Lopez Make All-PCAC as Knights Finish 2nd at PCAC Championship

Yesenia Huerta, Isabelle Dalton, and Calysta Lopez all finished in the top-11 to earn all-conference honors and help the Knights secure second place at Friday's PCAC championship, their best conference finish since 1989.

Huerta was City's fastest runner on the 5k course, held at Liberty Station's NTC Park, as she crossed the finish line in fifth overall with a time of 21:18.9. She chopped 33 seconds off her last run at this course three weeks ago and has now made the All-PCAC team in both of her seasons with the Knights. 

Freshman Isabelle Dalton cut 50 seconds off her previous pace at this course during the the Mesa Invite on October 1st to earn eighth place overall at the PCAC championship with a final time of 21:58.8. Dalton has improved her 5k time by over a minute since the season started. 

Lopez clocked in at 23:18.4, which was a 17-second improvement at the NTC Park course, to earn 11th place. She just missed out on All-conference during her freshman year in 2019, but ran 1:42 faster this year to make sure sure she was one of the 15 fastest at the conference championship.

It's the second straight season that the Knights have had three all-conference runners. Huerta, along with Joanna Lopez and Nayeli Villarreal, earned the honor in 2019 as the Knights placed third.

Freshmen Mariana Lara, Elani Patzan, and Rachel Karalnikc also ran personal bests to help the team to it's best performance in 32 years. Lara came in 16th place with a time of 25:528.3, which is a 1:30 improvement over her first 5k run. 

Patzan knocked off over two minutes from her first meet to finish 17th at Friday's championship with a time of 26:22.5 and Karalnikc was over four minutes faster from her first race of the season to place 19th (26:39.8). 

In addition to claiming second place at the PCAC championship, the Knights also won a spot at the Southern California regional championship which will be held at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley on November 5. That meet is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.