Helen Crofts on left with Jessica Smith
SFU and UBC trail CSU San Marcos Women’s & Men’s Cross-Country to A.I.I. Conference Championship
November 7, 2009
WOMEN
CSU San Marcos swept the top three individual spots, then held off hard-charging Simon Fraser to win the Association of Independent Cross-Country Conference Championship on Saturday.
The loaded field featured #2-ranked CSU San Marcos, #3 Simon Fraser, and #13 British Columbia. Also competing were Soka University and Johnson & Wales, and one runner from Southwestern College.
Running on their home course at Cal State San Marcos, the Cougars’ got big efforts from their top-three runners, but Simon Fraser nearly edged them by placing five runners between spots 4 and 10 in the field. In the end, the national rankings held to form as CSUSM finished with 34 points, while Simon Fraser settled for second with 36. British Columbia placed third with 62 points, Soka took fourth at 125, and Johnson & Wales rounded out the field with 140 points.
CSU San Marcos’ reigning All-American senior Dallon Williams made it her mission to win this race, and she did so quite impressively. Williams pulled away in the second half of the race, tying her own school record with a time of 16:55.
Thirty seconds later, fellow Cougar Caitlin Villarreal crossed the finish line, coming in at 17:25 to place second. And junior Jessica Sandoval, who distanced herself from a large field of runners late in the race, placed third at 17:39.
But the race was far from over, as British Columbia’s super-steady team crossed the finish line one after another. Jessica Smith placed 4th at 17:48, Angela Shaw took 5th with a 17:50, Holly Stockall placed 8th at 18:04, Helen Croft took 9th at 18:08, and Ali Hudson placed 10th at 18:09.
British Columbia had Maggie Woodward and Sabrina Reeve place in the top-10, finishing 6th and 7th with times of 17:57 and 18:02, respectively.
When CSU San Marcos’ #4 runner Kelly Thompson and #5 runner Lindsey McKown crossed the finish line in 13th and 15th place, it was unclear who the team champion would be. The Cougars’ performance proved to be just enough to prevail.
CSU San Marcos Coach Steve Scott was named A.I.I. Coach of the Year, and the top-10 finishers were named to the All-Conference Team. CSUSM earns the conference’s automatic bid to the NAIA National Championships on November 21st in Vancouver, Washington.
MEN
Muluken Beressa’s school-record performance proved to be just the bump that CSU San Marcos needed, as the Cougar men’s cross-country team pulled a mild upside by winning the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Cross-Country Conference Championships on Saturday.
The race, held at Cal State San Marcos, featured a talented five team field, including #5 British Columbia, #7 CSU San Marcos, and #12 Simon Fraser. Soka University and Johnson & Wales also competed, and Southwestern College sent three runners.
In a battle that went all the way down to the wire, CSU San Marcos pulled out the narrow victory, with their team score of 39 narrowly edging Simon Fraser’s 41. British Columbia was close behind but settled for third place with a 44. Soka finished fourth with 131, and Johnson & Wales took fifth with 135 points.
Early on, a group of three runners – Kevin Friesen from Simon Fraser, and Dave Edwards and Beressa from CSU San Marcos – separated themselves from the pack, and would continue to pull ahead as the race progressed. Edwards fell back in the final mile, leaving Friesen and Beressa neck-and-neck for the last few hundred meters of the race. Cheered on by a raucous home crowd, Beressa prevailed, crossing the finish line with a time of 24:14. Friesen would finish one second behind at 24:15.
Beressa’s time breaks the CSUSM school record, previously set by Juan Mejia in 2007, by one second as well.
Edwards cruised to a third place finish in the meet at 24:42. Simon Fraser’s Ryan Brockerville took fourth at 24:53, and British Columbia runners Kerry Kazuta and Ben Thistlewood placed fifth and sixth, running 24:54 and 25:06, respectively.
CSUSM’s top-5 runners all finished in the top-17 at the meet. Chris Capeau placed 8th at 25:20, Pat Fitzgerald 10th at 25:23, and Chris Strasheim 27th at 26:27.
Simon Fraser saw Keir Forester take 7th at 25:18, David Wambui place 12th at 25:28, and Mitchell Culley take 16th at 26:14. CSUSM’s team time was a mere two seconds faster than Simon Fraser’s, 2:06:06 to 2:06:08.
British Columbia had Jordan Smith take 9th at 25:23, Nigel Hole place 11th with a 25:27, and Eric Cameron finish 13th at 25:45.
Following the completion of the race, there were tense moments as the results were calculated. When the underdog Cougars were announced the winner, both the crowd and team exploded in cheers.
CSU San Marcos coach Steve Scott was named A.I.I. Coach of the Year following the race, and the top-10 individual finishers were named to the All-Conference Team. CSU San Marcos earns the conference’s automatic bid to Nationals on November 21st in Vancouver, Washington, where the team will look to improve on last year’s 12th place finish.
