Seniors Carl Lostrom and Mimi Hodgins flew across the finish line for the UCSD men’s and women’s cross country teams at the 32nd Paul Short Invitational on Oct. 1 to help the Triton teams finish 24th out of 44 and 11th out of 47 teams, respectively.
Both teams had solid outings against stiff competition at the meet in Bethlehem, Pa., where Leigh University played host at its Goodman course to teams from predominantly NCAA Division I schools.
In the women’s 6k race, the No. 12 Tritons were led by Hodgins, who raced across the line to place 17th out of 309 runners overall, with a time of 21 minutes, 8.2 seconds. Hodgins’ time was only 40 seconds off of the race leader’s finish. Last year, Hodgins was UCSD’s Racer of the Year and already has first and second place finishes in this season’s first two meets.
Sophomore Emily McGregor, whose time of 21:59.2 landed her in 69th place, followed Hodgins. Junior Erin O’Donnell placed third for the Tritons, with a time of 22:36, and finished 78th overall. Sophomore Katie Olson and senior Nina Miller finished within four-tenths of a second of each other to place 89th and 90th, respectively, and completed the women’s top five for the Tritons.
The No. 21 men’s team was headed by Lostrom’s stellar effort in the 8k race. Lostrom, voted the team’s Most Valuable Male Racer in 2004, was the top Triton finisher of the day, placing 49th out of 299 competitors with a time of 24:28. His time was less than a minute off of the first-place finisher.
Senior Luke Sigmon and sophomore Matt Noble rounded out the Tritons’ top three and placed 122nd and 146th overall with respective times of 25:32 and 25:40.
Junior Dan Holligan was fourth fastest to cross the line for the Tritons, finishing with a time of 25:52 for 163rd place. Completing the UCSD men’s top five was senior Chris Beetley Hagler, who finished at 180th place in 26 minutes.
The Georgetown Hoyas won the men’s event for the third year in a row, while the Columbia team won the women’s division.
Both UCSD teams have had strong seasons thus far, with the men finishing first against Point Loma and fifth at the UC Irvine Invitational, and the women’s team placing first and fourth at the same meets.
The teams are preparing for several important meets in the near future, including the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships and the NCAA Division II West Regional.
Head coach Ted Van Arsdale’s men’s and women’s teams will return home for next weekend’s UCSD Triton Cross Country Classic, which is the midpoint of this year’s season.
The annual event will be held on Oct. 8 at the Triton Par Course. This will be the debut of a newly redesigned course for 2005 and will include varied terrain on grass and dirt trails with sidewalk crossings.
