Big West Championships
Cal Poly Cross Country Heads Back to Riverside for Big West Championships
10/27/2022 10:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly cross country program heads to UC Riverside's Ag/Ops Course on Saturday to compete in The Big West Championships. Action starts at 8:30 a.m. with the women's 6K race, followed by the men's 8K at 9:15 a.m.
You can watch the races and awards ceremony live on ESPN+. You can also follow the live results here.
The Mustangs are seeking their 18th Big West title on the men's side and eighth for the women.
The last time the conference championships were held at UC Riverside's Ag/Ops Course in 2019, the Cal Poly men captured their fourth consecutive title while the women took home third. The Mustangs got a peek at the 2022 championship course earlier this season at the UC Riverside Invitational as the men secured first and the women took home second.
Last season, rival UC Santa Barbara ended the Mustangs' championship streak on the men's side as the Gauchos edged them out 50-38. Cal Poly will be looking for some redemption Saturday and the Mustangs look primed to achieve just that.
Six of the nine runners that competed in last year's Big West Championships for the Cal Poly men will hit the course Saturday — Will Fallini-Haas, Xian Shively, Anthony Guerra, Aidan McCarthy, Spencer Thurman and John Bennett. Fallini-Haas (third), Shively (eighth) and Guerra (ninth) all earned All-Big West honors in 2021 by finishing in the top 10 individually at the conference race.
Graduate student Jake Ritter, who medically redshirted last fall and was unable to compete in The Big West Championships, is seeking history in his third and final conference meet. In his final attempt, Ritter, the 2018 and 2019 Big West champion, is seeking to become the first athlete on the men's or women's side to claim three individual conference titles.
Ritter is fresh off an impressive 10th-place finish at the XC23 Invitational in Virginia two weeks ago. The performance showed the Citrus Heights native is more than capable of etching his name in The Big West record books this weekend and leading the Mustangs back to the top of the conference.
Ritter will have plenty of competition in pursuit of this year's individual title, including from his own teammates. Bennett, Shively and McCarthy, who ran the second fastest 800-meter time in school history on the track this past spring, have all been the top Mustang finisher at a meet this season.
Redshirt sophomore Erik Luu and sophomore Godebo Chapman will both be making their first conference championship appearance. Ritter, Bennett and Fallini-Haas helped the Cal Poly men bring home the Big West trophy in 2019, and they hope to do the same Saturday.
Earlier this season, the Mustang men received votes in the USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll for the first time since 2013 after showing what their made of at Notre Dame's Joe Piane Invitational, finishing seventh in a talented field. In the most recent national poll on Oct. 18, Cal Poly garnered three votes.
For the women, defending champion UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton are expected to be the Mustangs' biggest competition in pursuit of their first Big West title since 2018.
Sophomore Julia Heckey (15th), graduate student Sydnie Rivas (23rd) and redshirt juniors Misty Diaz and Amanda Olla all competed in the 2021 conference race. For Diaz, this will be her third Big West appearance.
The rest of the women hitting the course Saturday for Cal Poly are all newcomers to the conference championship stage and are made up of sophomores Ellie Baxter, Carissa Buchholz and Nina St. John, and freshmen Riley Cash and Tatiana Cornejo.
Heckey has been a standout for the Mustangs this fall, earning fourth in the Gold race at the prestigious Joe Piane Invitational and running a personal-best 6K time of 20:37.6 at the UC Riverside Invitational to place 11th. In Cal Poly's most recent race at the Bronco Invite on Oct. 15, Rivas, Heckey and Buchholz formed a tight pack for the Mustangs, finishing 20th, 22nd and 25th respectively.
Cornejo has also shown plenty of promise in her first season as a Mustang, grabbing 13th at the Joe Piane on Sept. 30.
The women have secured third at the last two Big West meets, and Cal Poly will be looking to improve upon those performances this weekend.
Entering Saturday's conference championships, the Mustang men are the top Big West school in the USTFCCCA West Region rankings at No. 8, while the women are ranked 15th.
Following The Big West Championships, Cal Poly heads to Chambers Creek Park in Washington on Friday, Nov. 11, for the NCAA West Regional meet.
