Giants' Ramirez wins conference championship race

COS runners captured three of the top four individual places, led by champion Ismael Ramirez (Redwood), while winning the Central Valley Conference men's cross country championship meet Oct. 30 at Fresno's Woodward Park.

Ramirez enjoyed a dominating 14-second margin of victory, crossing the finish line in 21:11.5. Second place Mohamed Saleh finished in 21:25.5.

Ramirez was named the conference's MVP.

The Giants also had Evan Loftin (El Diamante) place third in 21:34.6 and Oscar Perez (Dinuba) place fourth in 21:34.6.

Zachary Woods (Frontier-Bakersfield) was ninth in 21:50.3, Christian Gonzales (Corcoran) was 10th in 21:50.5, Luciano Linarez (Exeter) was 11th in 21:54.1, Cristobal Vasquez (Lindsay) was 12th in 22:04.4, Victor Cisneros (Lindsay) was 13th in 22:05.5, Dominic Izquierdo (Hanford) was 20th in 23:01.0, Gerardo Dicochea (Redwood) was 26 in 24:34.8 and Angel Barajas-Galindo (Mt. Whitney) was 28th in 26:47.6 for COS' men, who advance to the Northern California Championships on Nov. 8 at Toro Park in Salinas.

In the women's race, the Giants' Courtney Santos (Hanford West) was eighth in the 23-runner race in 21:25.3, and Sky Garcia (Mt. Whitney) was ninth in 21:48.0.

Santos and Garcia each qualified for the NorCal Championships.

The state championship meet is set for Nov. 23 at Woodward Park.