CROSS COUNTRY — Traveling nearly the entire way up California’s coast to race in a pressure-filled conference championship against the nation’s top Division-II squads set up UCSD’s runners for difficult conditions last Saturday. Two strong races later, none of it proved to be much of a problem.
The UCSD cross country team competed in the 2009 California Collegiate Athletic Association Champions Oct. 24 at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. The Triton women had their best finish in years — taking second place overall — while the men’s team took fifth place.
The women’s impressive performance follows three consecutive third-place seasons at conference championships, marking one of the best performances the Tritons have had as a member of the CCAA. The effort was not enough to break the dominance of Chico State, however, whose team claimed their second consecutive conference title and their sixth title in eight years. The Wildcats are currently the top-ranked team nationally in Division II.
The women were led by junior Bre Schofield’s second-place finish. After completing the 6K course in 22:13, she was awarded with her second straight all-CCAA recognition. However, Schofield was far from alone in her strong performance — it took solid running from the entire team had a solid day to hold off rival Cal Poly Pomona by only seven points.
Senior Marie Schaper finished 18th on the day with a time of 23:44, while sophomore Elena Inouye came in less than one second behind her to take 19th place. Sophomore Aaryn Kobayashi and junior Caprice Thompson took 24th and 32nd respectively to round out the scoring for UCSD. The collaborative effort worked greatly to the team’s advantage — all seven Tritons were able to finish before Cal Poly’s fifth runner crossed the line.
“We were really pleased with what the women accomplished,” head coach Nate Garcia said. “They came up here with a clear focus on what they wanted to accomplish and we were happy to see them able [to] realize that.”
Cal State Los Angeles senior Vivien Wadeck was the overall women’s winner for the second straight year, becoming only the second repeat champion in the history of the women’s CCAA Championshs.
The Triton men saw less success at the meet, earning a total of 119 points — only one more than fourth place Cal State Stanislaus.
The UCSD runners had a strong showing as a team, however, with the top three Triton finishers crossing the line within 15 seconds of each other. Senior Mike Wright was the first Triton to finish in 26:22, good for 22nd place in the 8K race. He was followed by sophomores Jeremy Riley and John Svet, who finished 23rd and 24th, respectively.
“Humboldt got in front of us early, and ended up getting in their top seven before our top five,” Baum said. “At regionals, we’ll look to reign in Stanislaus and we’ll have our eye on Humboldt.”
First-place Chico State was led by conference champion Jimmy Elam to win their eighth consecutive CCAA Championships. The Wildcats fielded five of the first seven finishers and are ranked third nationally in Division II.
“It’s always tough when you lose a race by just a point,” Garcia said. “But I feel confident that with a good effort and a little bit better day they can turn in better results at the regional meet.”
The Tritons’ next race will be the NCAA Division II West Regionals, which will be held at the home course of San Francisco State University on Nov. 7.
