Cal Poly to Compete at Big West Championships Saturday in Riverside
10/31/2019 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Familiar terrain is in store for the Cal Poly cross country program as both Mustang squads look to defend their clean sweep of team and individual titles Saturday in Riverside at the Big West Conference Championships.
Ag Ops Course will host the meet, a month-and-a-half after Cal Poly and most of the rest of the conference ran at the UCR Invitational at the same venue.
The 51st Big West Finals get underway with the Women's 6k at 8:45 a.m., before the Men's 8k begins at 9:30.
Five student-athletes from each school count toward scoring, while the next two individuals among teams' nine entrants displace opposing finishers. Below are the lineups entered to represent Cal Poly on Saturday:
Men
Anthony Benitez, RS Fr.
John Bennett, RS Fr.
Chas Cook, RS Jr.
Will Fallini-Haas, RS Fr.
Hayden Hansen, RS Fr.
Brett Hickman, RS Fr.
Elias Opsahl, RS Fr.
Jake Ritter, Jr.
Justin Robison, RS Jr.
Women
Sierra Brill, Jr.
Miranda Daschian, Sr.
Misty Diaz, RS Fr.
Angela DiPentino, Jr.
Abbey Fisk, Jr.
Melodie Leroudier, RS Jr.
Annie Meeder, Jr.
Cate Ratliff, Jr.
Lexi Watkins, So.
Last year, Ritter won his title while leading the men's team to a score of 32 points at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea, sealing a three-peat.
Daschian won her crown to lead her squad to a team score of 33 points, earning the Mustang women's team's third trophy in a four-year stretch.
All-time between both squads, Cal Poly has a combined total of 51 conference team championships for cross country, 23 of which have come in the Big West. In addition, the program has seen a combined 38 all-time individual conference titles, including 15 in the Big West.
Ritter was honored as Big West Athlete of the Week on Oct. 1, while Brill (for Sept. 17) and Daschian (also Oct. 1) won the weekly conference accolade during the regular season as well.
A team championship for the Mustang men would be the conference's third occurrence of four straight in history, as Cal Poly won seven in a row from 2003-09 and Long Beach State went 4-for-4 from 1969-72.
Some of the toughest competition on the men's side will likely come from UC Santa Barbara junior Nick Randazzo, a three-time athlete of the week this fall, while Cal State Fullerton senior Jorge Sanchez earned the honor for Oct. 8. Randazzo has led the Gaucho men to a No. 9 regional ranking, with Cal Poly at No. 11.
On the women's side, CSF, which took second in the team scoring a year ago, saw both Samantha Huerta and Trinity Ruelas win BWC AOW honors in 2019 (Oct. 8 & 22, respectively), while Hawaii's Shannon McClish was selected on Sept. 24. UC Davis' women were ranked ninth regionally in the latest poll, with Fullerton checking in 13th.
Earlier this fall on Sept. 14, Cal Poly won the men's team 8k at the Highlanders' 39th annual Invite, and Brill won the women's individual 6k.
In addition to Brill, DiPentino, Meeder, Diaz and Watkins raced on the Inland Empire course in September. The conference meet in 2017 was also held at UCR, as Daschian took second, Brill was sixth, DiPentino 16th, Fisk 17th and Meeder 21st (the last four all as then-freshmen).
Ritter, Bennett, Opsahl, Benitez, Fallini-Haas, Hickman and Cook all competed on the same course in September, and Cook also helped the Mustangs win their 2017 conference title there as well, thanks to a seventh-place showing.
The Mustangs, coached by Mark Conover and Priscilla Bayley, are scheduled to bus down on Friday. This will be the 12th time Riverside has hosted the championships since 2002.
2019 Mustang Times
Live Timing App
Results
Course Maps
Tickets are $6 for general admission; Big West students are free. Parking on Nov. 2 is available in Lot 30.
The next stop of the postseason will be the NCAA West Regional Championships, hosted by Washington State at nearby Colfax Golf Complex on Friday, Nov. 15.
Photos © Robert Huskey / Jeff Liang
