UCSD’s cross country
team took center stage over the weekend at the 6-kilometer Triton Classic on
Oct. 6. The annual competition yielded mixed results: The women’s team finished
in fifth place out of 10 teams and the men came in second out of the eight
competing schools.
In the men’s race,
junior Daniel Anderson led the way as the Triton’s top performer, finishing in
seventh place with a time of 33 minutes, 50.5 seconds. Junior Kevin Klein and
sophomore Jesse Morill also ran solid races, coming in 10th and 13th place,
respectively. Klein finished his race with a time of 33:58.5, while Morill was
clocked in at 34:06.1. Junior Timur Crone and sophomore Mike Wright were the
next two UCSD runners to cross the line, with Crone placing 25th and Wright
finishing 26th. Crone completed the race with a time of 34:45.4, with Wright
coming right behind him at 34:46.8.
UCLA’s Henry
Hagenbuch won the men’s 6-kilometer race with a time of 32:43.1. Hagenbuch’s
terrific race anchored a great Triton Classic for the Bruins, who dominated
with five runners in the top six. The strong performance helped UCLA win the
overall title with 19 points, a mark that easily cleared UCSD’s second place
total of 74 points.
The UCSD women’s
cross country team was led by senior captain Emily McGregor, who finished the
race in eighth place with a time of 22:53.2. Fellow senior Diane Dunn was the
next Triton to finish, coming in 15th out of 119 runners and clocking in at
23:17.6. The next three finishers from UCSD were junior Ashleigh Montgomery
(25th, 23:51.7), sophomore Jordana Henderson (32nd, 24:09.6), and junior Dana
Underwood (35th, 24:16.9).
Zsofia Erdelyi of
University of Southern California won the race, setting a new course record
with a time of 21:50.4. Cal State Los Angeles was the best women’s team of the
day, recording a total of 34 points. The Golden Eagles had runners finish
second, third, seventh, eighth and 14th, which helped the school clear
second-place University of Southern California by 36 points.
UCSD cross country
has a new boss in town, with Nate Garcia set to finish up his first year as the
team’s head coach. Garcia isn’t short on credentials, though, having spent the
last 10 years working beside recently retired coach Ted Van Arsdale. The UCSD
alum has no shortage of enthusiasm as the team’s leader.
“I am excited and
honored to be named the head coach at my alma mater,” Garcia said after being
hired on July 31. “I am looking forward to continuing the great tradition of
excellence [Van Arsdale] helped to establish here at UC San Diego.”
The cross country
team is on hiatus this week, but must prepare for the most important part of
its schedule in the coming weeks. The 2007 California Collegiate Athletic
Association Championships are set to take place on Oct. 20 and will be hosted
by Cal State Stanislaus in
improve on their third-place finish from a year ago in an attempt to dethrone
winner of the last five CCAA Men’s Cross Country Championships. The conference
championship will set the stage for the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 3, followed
by the national championships two weeks later. UCSD must finish in the top
three of the CCAA championships in order to advance to the West Regional.
