The battle for men's cross country supremacy in Southern California is always a fierce one, as several teams want to stake their claim to the top spot. 

And the San Bernardino Valley College team is one of those teams perennially in the hunt for a top spot. But at this 2025 Southern California Regionals, the Wolverines had to settle for sixth, which still easily qualified the team for the California Community College Athletic Association State Championships on Nov. 22 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Micah Watson built upon his Inland Empire Athletic Conference Championship run at the regionals. He was 22nd after the first mile on the 4-mile course, gradually moving up the field until he was 10th at the 3-mile mark, before eventually finishing fifth with a time of 20 minutes, 28.86 seconds, his best time at the distance this season and a 40-second improvement on his time on the course.

Several other SBVC runners also posted their best times of the season in the race at Naval Training Center Park in San Diego. Zach Calderon posted his best 4-mile time of the season, finishing 27th in the field of 184 runners with a time of 21:03.19. Jacob Orta wasn't far behind, finishing 30th at 21:09.37, while Maximiliano Resendis finished 39th with a time of 21:21.31. Adam Acuna rounded out the scoring five, stopping the clock at 21:38.6 for 54th place.

Coach Jim Ratigan said he expects his team to be ready for the challenge of the hillier course at the state championships after posting the faster times on the relatively flat course in San Diego.