Both Stags and Athenas place well and record several personal bests at UCR Invite
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – On Saturday, Sept. 12, CMS Cross Country ran in the multi-divisional UC Riverside Invitational. The meet consisted of four races. The top-9 of each team were positioned in one heat, with the open race for the lesser competitive teams, those who wanted to race a 5k in the women's open section or as in CMS' case, the overflow athletes from the larger teams.
The Athenas placed eighth in the Invitational section finish, behind only Division I teams with scholarship athletes like Arkansas, UC Davis and Santa Barbara. CMS finished only one point behind NCAA Division II Azusa Pacific University. The women's team was led by senior Bridget Blum (CMC) who placed 16th out of a field of 110 finishers. Junior Jen Lehr (SCR) 22:14, sophomore Bryn McKillop (SCR) 22:17, junior Caroline Willian (CMC) 22:35 and sophomore Laura Broderick (SCR) 22:37 who were the next four finishers for Claremont, all recorded all-time bests for the 6k distance. The eighth place finish was two places higher than the team from 2014 managed. In the women's open 5k race, the Athenas finished sixth, only six points behind Pomona Pitzer's A team, 170 to 176. Leading the pack for the women was sophomore Lauren Stanislaw (SCR) with a personal record for the distance of 18:52. Eight other women recorded personal bests in this race.
The Stags almost mirrored the women's Invitational placing and performance, placing a respectable eighth out of the 29 teams who scored. The winning team from Southern Utah with 44 points, bested UCSB, Cal Poly Pomona, UC Davis, Long Beach State and the defending national junior college champions, Central Arizona. Central Arizona finished in sixth place followed by Cal State San Marcos. San Marcos edged out CMS by just 10 points, 238 to 248.
Six out of the nine racers for the Stags recorded all-time bests, led by senior Evan Molineux (CMC) with an incredible 76 second improvement, clocking 25:11 for the 5-mile course. The top five Stags averaged 25:32 per man, which is the fastest average time over the course at UCR in the history of the program. In the open 5-mile race, the Stags pulled off a victory scoring 32 points to Cal Poly Pomona's 55. Four more Stags set all time PR's for the five miles. Junior Josh Sealand (HMC), sophomore's Danyon Anderson (CMC) and Arch Robison (HMC) along with junior Dan McCabe (HMC) all set personal bests.
The next meet for the team will be on Sept. 26 as we split the team with some athletes going north to the Stanford Invitational and the rest of the team racing in San Bernardino at the CSSB Invite.
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