Athenas 1st, Stags 2nd at West Regional; both teams qualify for NCAA Championships
The CMS cross country teams finished first and second at the NCAA West Regional on Saturday and both teams automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships. The Athenas, the region's top ranked team, beat #2 Willamette 62-81 in the women's race while the Stags, ranked second in the region, narrowly lost to cross campus rival Pomona-Pitzer 71-78 in the men's.
The Athenas won their fourth straight and tenth overall region title. Sara Mostatabi led a trio of women who finished in the top seven. She finished third overall while finishing first for the Athenas for the first time in her career. Allison Barnwell finished sixth and Lisa Beem finished seventh. Adele Eslinger was 22nd and Meghan Fuelling was 24th to round out the team scorers. All five women earned All-Region honors by finishing in the top 35 as did sixth runner Nicki Maslan in 33rd. Barnwell earned All-Region honors for the fourth time, Mostatabi for the third time and Beem for the second with each of the other three earning it for the first time in their careers. CMS has the best finishing third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh (Tess Williams - 50th) of any team in the region. 21 teams and 141 runners competed in the race.
Zorg Loustalet led the Stags with a third place finish. The four other team scorers finished in a tight 18 second spread. Sam Pitcavage was 15th, Jon Briskman 16th, Tyler Robinson 21st and Colin Briskman 25th. All five earned All-Region honors along with sixth runner Jacob Higle-Ralbovsky in 29th. Loustatlet and Pitcavage earned their second All-Region accolades with the other four earning them for the first time. Nico Banks was the second best seventh runner in the meet at 48th.
Both teams automatically qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships which will take place November 23 in Hanover, Indiana by finishing in the top two. CMS is one of only six programs nationally where both teams will be competing for the sixth straight year.
