CMS Cross Country takes on All Comers at Stanford Invite
STANFORD, Calif. – This past Saturday, Sept. 26, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps cross country team traveled up to Palo Alto to compete in the multi-divisional Stanford Invitational. Both the Stags and Athenas proved to be up for the challenge as they placed ninth (Stags) and 11th (Athenas) in the 30-team fields.
The Stags were led by senior Zorg Loustalet (HMC) who finished 37th overall in a time of 24:35.5 for the five-mile course. Fellow Harvey Mudd junior Kyle Lund had the big breakthrough race of the day, dropping his all-time best an incredible 82 seconds to record a time of 24:43.2 and place only eight spots behind the two-time All-American Loustalet.
Both Loustalet and Lund had times that ranked in CMS' top-5, all time. Rounding out the top-7 for the nationally ranked Stags who are 11th in the country were senior Evan Molineux (CMC) at 25:13.5, junior Joshua Sealand (HMC), senior Jack Wilson (CMC), junior Jesse Joseph (HMC) and junior Garrett Ryan (CMC). Sealand seems to have figured out how to push his 6'7" frame over the 5-mile course to become one of the SCIAC's best cross country runners. He had a new personal best over the weekend, dropping his all-time best time by 59 seconds, to 25:14.
The Athenas ran a very solid race, finishing 11th overall out of 30 teams that scored in a very close competition. CMS, the top-ranked team in the West Region, ran 13 seconds per person faster over this year's course as they did in 2014, when they went on to place 10th nationally.
The top finisher for the Athenas was returning All-American, senior Bridget Blum (CMC). She crossed the line in 43rd place with a time of 21:53.3, and was followed by junior Jen Lehr (SCR), sophomore Laura Broderick (SCR), junior Caroline Willian (CMC sophomore Bryn McKillop (SCR), junior Carmen Mejia (SCR) and junior Rachel Mow (HMC) who finished 109th to round out the Athenas' top-7. Mejia is a returning 800-meter All-American last spring for the track & field team.
"The Stanford Invitational is a wonderful opportunity for our athletes to test themselves against some top competition and it's a trip that has historically been fun and very productive," head coach John Goldhammer said.
Next up for CMS is the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 3. Racing begins in wash at 7:30 a.m.
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