The men’s side had six of the top eight finishers, winning the meet with a perfect 15 points, while the Triton women had five runners in the top 15 to take second overall.
The meet was held at Legg Lake in Whittier Narrows Regional Park, which is the home course of Cal Poly Pomona. The Triton men narrowly lost to the Broncos two weeks ago at the Triton Classic, but were denied another shot at Pomona as the Broncos fielded only three runners in the race. However, this allowed the Tritons to rest some of their athletes, and head coach Nate Garcia was pleased with the results.
“It was a very good meet,” Garcia said. “The guys we had running this week really stepped up. We had an opportunity to rest some guys this week and still perform well. Winning the meet and finishing with 15 points was a really nice accomplishment for us, and we got some guys to step up for us in ways they hadn’t yet.”
Freshman Kellen Levy led the way on the men’s side, finishing the 8k course in 25:51. Levy finished in third overall behind two unattached runners. Levy was followed by five more UCSD runners: junior Patrick French, freshman Mario Flores, junior Alex Corliss, freshman Ben Rich and freshman Ryan Lok.
Although Chico State appears to have the conference title locked up, the race for second is wide open with the Tritons right in the thick of it.
“After running [Pomona] pretty close here, I think it will be a really fun meet in two weeks,” Garcia said. “I think with [Pomona] and Humboldt State — who [Pomona] tied earlier the year — the three of us should be neck and neck at conference. So I’m excited where our guys are.”
The women’s team was led by freshman Kamilah Foley, who clocked 22:55 over the 6k course to take sixth place. Junior Aaryn Kobayashi and sophomores Jackie Sikkema, Heather Hisgen and Katie Kane rounded out the Triton scorers.
The women’s team ran close to Cal State Stanislaus, and the conference meet promises to be just as competitive.
“We were only one point behind Stanislaus, which was a lot of fun,” Garcia said. “It came right down to the end, and I know our gals are hungry to get back out there and get another shot at them in two weeks.”
The Tritons will return to the Legg Lake course on Nov. 6 for the CCAA Championships.
