Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Alton Richardson Ross Mollenkopf leads a pack of middle runners up the hill at the Mills College Invitational on Sept. 22, 2007 in Oakland, CA.

Media Credit: Jeff Bennett The Hawks Cross Country team ended up on top bringing home their first win of the season as well as 3 medals and a trophy at the Mills College Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007 in Oakland, Ca.

Media Credit: Jeff Bennett Hawks Juan Gomes rounds the top of the course on route to a third place finish at the Mills College Invitational on Saturday, Sept 22, 2007, in Oakland, Ca.

The theme of the day was Queen's, "We will rock you," for Las Postias Men's Cross Country on Sept. 22, as they rocked their way to top.
Expectations where high among the team after taking top honors last year at the Mills College Invitational with a first place finish and three runners finishing in the top five. This year was no different as the Hawks overtook the field of four-year colleges for a second victory at the Invitational in two years.
What made this race different from the any other they will be running this year, is they were the only community college in attendance.
While most of the community colleges were off racing each other, the Hawks decided to show their muscle once again at a race featuring five four-year institutions, including local college Cal State East Bay. The Hawks took it to the four-years with a dominating victory, ending the meet with their top five runners in the top 10.
The force shown by the Hawks didn't go unnoticed by coaches at the race. After the meet was over, coaches were shocked at the time Las Positas runners had come in with.
"We get a chance to showcase out runners here," said Hawks coach Steve Navarro. "Four of the guys get off partial scholarships on the stop."
It might be Navarro's intent to come and showcase his team, but the runners see the race as something different.
"The atmosphere," said runner Joey Nunes, " that's why we like the race here so much."
The atmosphere is different than most races here, because of the small size. With only eight colleges at the event, the race is small compared to the 15-20 team races the Hawks are used to. With the race consisting of few runners, the team finds many perks at the small race at Mills College.
There are a lot of people cheering for our school," said runner Juan Gomez. "We also love the pizza after the meet (pizza was provided free of charge by Mills College)."
After the pizza was gone, the team got to celebrate its victory with a Las Positas dominated award ceremony.
The Hawks were awarded three individual race medals and team trophies for their job at the race. Receiving the individual medals was second place finisher Nunes, third place finisher Gomez, and fourth place finisher Ivan Medina. Rounding out the teams top five for the team trophies were runners Tristan Blair and Jag Kalirai.
Winning the medals does more than just show off how good the team is, it gives the runners hope of winning the conference championship.
"Huge that we beat the universities," said Hawks assistant coach Francisco Gomez. "Its physiologically huge for the team showing they can beat the universities. Hopefully we will see these guys training more."

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