SALINAS, Calif. –  Shasta College freshmen Jacob Garrett and Grace Southern qualified for the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) State Championship meet after both finishing in the top 40 at the NorCal Championships last week at Toro Park in Salinas.

Garrett led the Knights' men's team with a 22:00 time in the 4-mile race for 39th place out of 120 individuals. Southern ran the women's 5K course in 20:27 and took 33rd out of 91 individuals.

"Grace and Jacob both ran the last half of their races perfectly and were able to push through some setbacks early on this race to qualify for the State meet," said Taylor Duncan, Shasta College's head cross-country coach. "Grace is the only girl from our conference who qualified so it was redeeming for her after our conference meet where she didn't run as well as she wanted to. Jacob is just an absolute workhorse and has a huge future ahead in both track and field in the 800-meter and in cross-country. He is the athlete who can be successful at a multitude of events because he works so hard and has a passion for improvement."

Among the other finishers for the Shasta men, Joseph Williams was 96th (24:00), Jeshua Wilkinson was 103rd (25:03), Aaron Young was 111th (26:04), Cordell Brock was 112th (26:10) and Dixon Moore was 113th (26:31).

For the Knight women, Adrian Bartlett was 80th (23:34), Alia Sager was 87th (25:10) and Savanna Sanderson was 90th (26:48).

The CCCAA State Championship Meet in Nov. 22 at Woodward Park in Fresno with the women's 5K starting at 10 a.m. and the men's 4-mile race starting at 11 a.m.