When veteran cross country/track and field coach Ian Cumming retired from Otay Ranch High School at the end of the 2015-16 season, he took on a new challenge as head coach of the San Diego City College men’s cross country program.
Given Cumming’s past success — 34 league cross country champions in 40 years as a high school coach — there was little doubt that he would succeed at the community college level.
Cumming took over last year as head coach after Paul Greer had coached the team for 27 years.
Greer ran at St. Augustine High School and would go on to become a sub-four-miler.
Current SDCC assistant coach Jim Cerveny recruited Greer to attend and compete for SDSU. Mar Vista High alum Matt Clayton was the 1986 state community college individual champion while running for Greer at SDCC.
Longtime Sweetwater High School cross country/track and field coach Tim Latham joined the SDCC program this year as a volunteer assistant coach.
The Knights have made significant strides under their new staff.
The team finished with five runners at the 2015 Pacific Coast Athletic Conference championship meet, placing last in the team standings.
Membership doubled during Cumming’s inaugural season in 2016 that included a fifth-place finish at the conference finals and a 27th place-finish at the Southern California regional meet.
There is one race in Southern California and one race in Northern California to qualify for the state championship meet.
The team grew in size this season to 15 athletes, 10 of whom are freshmen with five returners.
The Knights finished third in the conference standings and moved up 10 places to 17th at the SoCal finals. Among the highlights was an upset win at the Downey Invitational.
The infusion of South County talent has been an obvious boost.
With three runners breaking 23:00 for 4.0 miles last year, the 2016 squad was the best team SDCC had produced in many years. However, the Knights surged past that mark this year when five runners eclipsed 22:00 at the Downey Invitational.
As for a further measure of the program’s positive growth, six runners posted faster times in 2017 than the top runner did on the team in 2016.
That’s significant growth.
Hanging 10
South County runners accounted for the top 10 times posted by the Knights this season.
San Ysidro High School graduate Andres Zamudio earned honors as SDCC’s most valuable runner this season with a 21.09 best time for 4.0 miles.
“Andres has a great work ethic with amazing potential and a fierce competitiveness,” Cumming said.
Olympian High School alumnus Jorge Tejeda and Sweetwater High School alum Edwin Mejia earned awards as the team’s most improved runners.
Cumming said Tejeda’s mileage was kept very low this past summer to allow him to heal following a track injury. Tejeda came back to post 21:25 for 4.0 miles this year.
“Since he is such a hard worker and talented runner, his higher mileage going forward will make him somebody to look out for at the end of next fall’s season,” Cumming said.
Cumming called Mejia “one of the hardest workers there is (with) a burning desire as a competitor.”
“A prime example was the fact that he moved up 10 to 15 places after the first mile at the Downey Invitational,” the SDCC head coach said.
Arturo Sandez, a Chula Vista High School alum, finished as the Knights’ No. 4 runner with a 21:38 time to earn recognition as the team’s outstanding sophomore runner.
Sophomore Jose Nobles (Otay Ranch) was the Knights’ No. 5 runner and served as team captain both last year and this year. He also earned recognition as the team’s scholar-athlete award-winner, earning all-state academic honors.
“He is quiet but is not afraid to lead along with having great motivational skills,” Cumming said. “He was one of our top two runners when points per meet are averaged out.”
Freshman Juan Camacho (Otay Ranch) entered the SDCC program as one of the top seven runners on Otay Ranch’s 2016 San Diego Section Division I championship team. Even with a mid-season ankle sprain, Camacho (22:20) still managed to have an outstanding season on a strong team, Cumming said.
Isaiah Duenas (Olympian), Jose Valenzuela (Southwest), Ryan Velasquez (Otay Ranch) and Esteban Corpus (Bonita Vista) rounded out the top 10 runners on this year’s SDCC team.
Duenas and Tejeda were members on Olympian’s 2014 Mesa League championship team.
Velasquez was a top three runner on SDCC in 2016 and without him, Cumming noted the Knights would not have moved up so far last year.
The future looks bright for the Knights, who return nine team members, including five of the team’s top eight (including the three fastest) off this year’s squad.
