The 2019 cross country season officially got underway on Saturday for Porterville College at the Fresno Invitational at Woodward Park. The Pirates had a full men's team of five runners compete at the event while the PC women were represented by two student-athletes.

The Porterville men earned a combined team score of 558 points to finish in 18^th place. Leading the way for the Pirates was freshman Rafael Hurtado. He cleared the four-mile course with a time of 24:18.1 to finish in 142^nd place overall.

Other finishes for the Pirates:
Angel Roman, 25:51.9, 177^th
Eli Gonzalez, 30:23.8, 192^nd
Daniel Alvarado, 32:10.3, 194^th
Nasario Gomez, 39:43.1, 195^th

On the women's side, freshman Veronica Buckman ran the 3.1-mile course with a time of 29:07.9 to finish in 127^th place. She was followed by freshman Arlette Rodriguez in 128^th place at 29:10.1.

Both the men's and women's squads will be back in action next Saturday (Sep. 14) at the Chabot Invitational in Hayward.