1/4/13: Jystad signs with St. Mary
 Saddleback College distance runner Amy Jystad signed a national letter of intent with the University of St. Mary on Friday and will continue her education as well as her cross country and track careers at the Leavenworth, Kansas, university later this month.
Jystad, a product of Mission Viejo High School, participated on the Saddleback College cross country teams during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, helping the Gauchos place 14th in the state in 2010 and 20th in the state in 2011. She also ran middle distance events on the 2011 and 2012 track teams, posting the 13th fastest time in school history in the 5,000-meter event last spring with a time of 20:17.52. Her top time in the 1,500-meters last season was 5:10 while her top time in the 3,000-meters was 11:27.
She will be leaving for Kansas next week as classes for the spring semester at St. Mary begin on January 14. USM, with an enrollment of 1,000 students, participates at the NAIA Division II level. She will be majoring in chemistry at USM.
Jystad was a Scholar-Baller student-athlete at Saddleback, maintaining a 3.00 grade point average or higher during her collegiate career. She finished her academic studies at Saddleback with a 3.12 overall GPA.
10/26/12: Men take third at OEC
championship
 Led by freshman Kyler Fisk's
individual runner-up finish at the Orange Empire Conference championship on
Friday, the Gauchos had all five scoring runners place amongst the top 15
runners in the meet and the Gauchos will now advance as a team to the Southern
California Regional Championship on Saturday, November 3rd, at Fairview Park in
Costa Mesa.
Although Saddleback had
five runners finish in the top 15, so did Riverside and Orange Coast as the top
three teams were far-and-away better than the rest of the field. Riverside won
the event with 26 points, followed by Orange Coast with 40 points, and
Saddleback placed third with 54 points.
Fisk 's time of 20:59 was just
nine seconds off the winning pace and eight seconds ahead of the third place
finisher. Derek Herrera (pictured right) put on a kick in the final yards to
move up to 11th place (21:54) with Brian Gomez in 12th (21:58). Rounding out the
scoring was Ricardo Medina in 14th place (22:01) and Mike Stoeffler in 15th
(22:10). Fisk earned first-team all-conference honors while Herrera, Gomez, and
Medina each earned second-team all-conference honors.
In the women's
race, Ana Gamboa placed eighth overall in a time of 20:26 to earn second-team
all-conference honors and qualify for next weekend's regional championship.
Amanda Idris (pictured right) placed 30th overall in a time of 22:00 to also qualify for the
regional championship. Quinn Xifo placed 33rd (22:05) and Kim Eleazar was 43rd
(23:05) but the Gauchos placed seventh as a team and will not be traveling to
the regional competition as a complete squad.
Orange Coast won the
women's race with Fullerton placing second.
10/14/12: Gamboa adds another school record at Mt. SAC
 Ana Gamboa is starting to build quite a resume at Saddleback, as she once again set a school record at the Mt. San Antonio Invitational this past week. It was the second straight meet that Gamboa had accomplished such a feat.
Gamboa finished the 3-mile course in Walnut in 18:58, good enough for 11th place overall out of 200 runners. Gamboa’s time was just 12 seconds out of fourth place, and seven seconds than the previous program record set at the course by Evonna Ramirez back in 2010.
Gamboa led a shorthanded Saddleback squad that had just three harriers in the race, not qualifying for a team score. Kim Eleazar finished in 65th place (20:47) while Audrey Wallingford finished in 116th place (22:24).
The women’s cross country team has the week off before competing in the Orange Empire Conference Finals at Irvine Park on October 26.
10/9/12: Gamboa sets course record at Brubaker
 Ana Gamboa has had a sensational start to her sophomore season of cross country in 2012, and recently set the bar a bit higher at the annual Brubaker Invitational at Irvine Park. Gamboa had another top-10 performance, setting the Saddleback record for the 5k course.
Gamboa finished the course in 19:42.6, some 30 seconds faster than any former Gaucho had ever run at Irvine Park. Saddleback, however, did not qualify for a team score as a result of having just four runners in the race.
Kim Eleazar finished in 36th place overall (21:07.6) while Quinn Xifo finished in 39th (21:10.1).
Gamboa's record run at Irvine Park was 31 seconds faster than the previous record set by Katie Blackwood in 2004 (20:13).
Saddleback will compete again on Friday at the Mt. SAC Invitational. Race time is set for 10:00 am.
9/25/12: Gamboa leads Gauchos to second place finish
 Sophomore Ana Gamboa led the Saddleback women’s cross country team to a second place finish at the cuesta Invitational this past Friday. Gamboa won the individual medal, finishing eight seconds in front of the closest competitor.
Gamboa finished the 3-mile course in 20:34.4, leading Saddleback to its best finish of the season. The Gauchos finished just five points behind home team Cuesta, averaging 22:36.7 per-runner on the Fairbanks Course in San Luis Obispo. In addition to Gamboa, another top-5 performance was turned in by Amanda Idris, who finished in fourth place at the event.
Saddleback will run again at the Brubaker Invitational on October 5 at Irvine Park.
9/17/12: Gauchos finish in the middle at SoCal Preview
The Saddleback women’s cross country team finished in the middle of the pack at the annual Southern California preview this past weekend. The Gauchos finished in 13th place out of 27 teams, with four harriers finishing in the top 75.
Saddleback knew they would be a bit shorthanded against some of the top competition in the state given they had just five runners on the day. However, they had a solid performance nonetheless, finishing in the top half of the field.
Ana Gamboa (pictured) led the way for Saddleback, finishing 42nd overall with a time of 20:57.23 on the 5,000-meter race in Costa Mesa. Amanda Idris finished second on the team with a time of 21:49.22, which was good enough for 63rd place overall.
Saddleback will once again compete on Friday at San Luis Obispo at the Cuesta College event. Race time is set for 3:00 pm.
9/8/12: Cross Country teams open 2012 schedule
The Saddleback cross country teams opened the 2012 season at the Palomar
Invitational on Friday with the men's team placing second and the women's team
placing fourth.
The men's team scored 50 points to easily separate
themselves from third-place Cerritos (93) and just missed out on an opportunity
to catch conference-foe Riverside (32 points) which won the 8-team event.
Ricardo Medina placed third (21:39), Brian Gomez finished fourth
(21:46), and Mike Stoeffler placed eighth (22:15) as the Gauchos had three
runners finish among the top 10. Riverside also had three runners finish in the
top 10 (1st, 2nd, 6th). Derek Herrera (22:50) and Will Murphy (22:59) placed
17th and 18th, respectively, to account for Saddleback's final
points.
The women's team finished fourth out of 10 teams in tight scoring
among the top five teams. Cerritos won the event with 31 points, followed by
Palomar (93), Riverside (98), Saddleback (110), and Fullerton (112). Ana Gamboa
(pictured) placed sixth overall (20:43) for the Gauchos with Quinn Xifo placing 17th
(21:40) and Amanda Idris placing 19th (21:47).
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