Pasadena City College Hall of Famer Jesse Gomez, who led the 1967 Lancers men's cross country team to the the school's only state championship ever in the sport, died on Tuesday night. He passed away from a respiratory illness at Pomona Valley Hospital.
Gomez' '67 team is being inducted next month into the 2026 class of the Hall of Fame. The head coach of that squad--Larry Knuth--is expected to be in attendance at the May 2 ceremony to be held at Sexson Auditorium.
Inducted into the PCC HOF as a student-athlete in 2002, Gomez won the '67 Western State Conference individual title at 18 minutes, 44 seconds. He placed a Lancers' best fifth at the state championships as PCC won the team crown in the first state meet held at Woodward Park in Fresno, the regular host of the state meet since 1981.
In 1968-69, Gomez performed several big feats on the Lancers track and field team as he set the 2-mile school record at 9 minutes .09 seconds and participated on the school record distance medley relay (9:57.2). He also took part in an unofficial national JC record run in the 4-mile relay as the Lancers foursome ran 17:06.4 at the Arcadia Invitational. The 1968 run was not recognized as an official record as PCC ran the race unopposed as an exhibition.
Gomez went on to become a long-time assistant coach (1976-1987) serving with head coach Skip Robinson as the Lancers won two state title men's track and field teams in 1978 and 1984. The '84 team is also being inducted in the '26 Hall class. The '78 squad entered the Hall in 2023.
Gomez later became head coach of the Lancers men's track and field and cross country teams (eventually taking over the women's programs as well) and served from 1994-2006. Among his athletes were three state individual champions including PCC Hall of Famer and Lancers Athlete of the Decade (1990s) Phil Gonzalez, who won the 1,500 meters title in both 1996 and 1997.
Other state champs coached by Gomez were Ruben Escobar capturing the 3,000 steeplechase title in 2001 and Mario Cobian winning the 800 meters in 2004.
In men's cross country, Gomez directed the '97 team to second place at the state meet behind South Coast Conference individual champion Gonzalez, who placed third. Five of his teams placed among the state top five in his tenure.
He coached back-to-back, SCC champions in Sergio Campos in 2001 and Moises Iniguez in 2002. Iniguez was the state runner-up that year in being beat in an epic final sprint to the line by Mt. San Antonio's Ozzie Pina at the '02 state meet, losing by a split second.
He later got the pleasure of seeing his son Joaquin Gomez become a 2-time, All-Southern California, All-SCC cross country racer in 2005 and 2006 for the Lancers.
In 2007, he served as an assistant coach for PCC's "Magnificent Seven," a small men's track and field squad that originally captured the COA state championship only to have that later changed to second place after it was learned that one athlete was academically ineligible to compete that week. Sacramento City College was awarded the title.
His expertise in distance racing resulted in Gomez coaching PCC track school record holders in Danny Martinez (5,000, 10,000 and steeplechase in 1982-83), Gus Mojarro (1,500 in '83), and Alfonso Averhart (800 in 1984).
Gomez (bottom row, third from left) with members of the 1978 men's track and field team at the 2023 PCC Hall of Fame ceremony
