NCAA West Regional Championships • Haggin Oaks Golf Course (Sacramento, CA)
Bilo, Hutchins Lead Cal Poly to Top 10 Finishes at NCAA West Regional Meet
11/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SACRAMENTO — The Cal Poly cross country program finished in the top 10 in both races at the NCAA West Regional meet at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex on Friday.
Beginning with the 6k at 11 a.m., the Mustang women were 10th facing not only the rest of the Big West Conference but also the Pac-12, Mountain West, WCC, Big Sky and WAC — compiling a score of 277 points.
Cal Poly sophomore Peyton Bilo, seeking a second straight trip to the NCAA Championships, put herself in position for another at-large bid (following her 12th-place finish as a freshman in Seattle which advanced her to the 2015 national meet), coming in ninth place with a time of 19:45.9.
Bilo climbed as the course progressed amid partly cloudy, slightly humid weather, getting out to a 28th-place pace of 5:41.8 through the first split, moving up to 17th at 9:32.1 by the second split and then taking the ninth-place position at 14:51.2 by the third.
Senior Ashley Windsor was the next Mustang in, finishing 44th at 20:36.2, just ahead of freshman teammate Cate Ratliff in 48th at 20:41.2.
Also for Cal Poly, junior Molly Haar came in 66th place among the field of 238 with a time of 21:03.3, followed by freshman Morgin Coonfield in 115th at 21:49.1 and sophomore Julia Vasquez in 128th at 21:57.8.
Washington junior Amy-Eloise Neale won the individual title in 19:27.8, but No. 7-ranked Stanford upset the No. 4 Huskies for top team honors, 71-88 atop the 35 squads. Both schools secured the two automatic full bids to the NCAA Championships.
Then in the 10k starting at 12 noon, Cal Poly's men took ninth place with 223 points.
Redshirt junior Clayton Hutchins led the Mustangs again, also putting himself in at-large contention, posting a 13th-place time of 29:56.4.
Similar to Bilo, Hutchins also steadily moved up throughout, opening with a pace of 5:05.3 for the 28th spot after the first split, elevating to 18th at the second split (8:34.7), 16th by the third (15:23.8), and then assuming 13th by the fourth (18:51.5).
Junior teammate Alex Heuchert was next in, running a 45th-place 30:35.4, just ahead of senior Swarnjit Boyal's 51st-place 30:44.4.
Meanwhile at his first collegiate regional, Mustang freshman Justin Robison came in 56th place with a performance of 30:46.0.
Sophomore Mikey Giguere added a 62nd-place time of 30:50.3 for the Mustangs, followed by freshman Chas Cook in 77th at 31:21.2 and sophomore Peter Cotsirilos in 110th at 32:07.5.
Stanford, ranked No. 4 in the country, tallied 75 points to win over No. 12 Portland's 90, as the Pilots upstaged UCLA and Oregon to join the Cardinal in automatically advancing to the national championships. Oregon senior Edward Cheserek, however, won individually at 29:23.7.
Cal Poly, the Big West champions on both the women's and men's sides (as Bilo and Hutchins — all-regional honorees on Friday — swept the conference Athlete of the Year awards), will now wait for the full at-large field to be announced on Saturday.
An NCAA committee will select the 13 additional teams and two individuals from around the nation's nine respective regions to travel to Indiana for Nov. 19, as Terre Haute will feature 31 squads and 255 individuals each. To view the full qualifying criteria, click here.
