Cal Poly Cross Country Sweeps Big West Titles, Ritter Makes History
10/29/2022 2:30:00 PM | Cross Country
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RIVERSIDE, Calif. — It was an historic day for the Cal Poly cross country program Saturday at UC Riverside's Ag/Ops Course.
The Mustangs swept the team titles at The Big West Championships for the first time since 2018 and the sixth time in the program's history.
"We are over the moon with how both teams ran and just ecstatic to walk away with both trophies," Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Ryan Vanhoy said.
Cal Poly ran away from its Big West foes in the men's 8K race, finishing with 22 team points — the best mark by the men's conference champion since 2016 when the Mustangs won with 16.
The Mustangs swept the top three places in the race as graduate student Jake Ritter claimed first, redshirt junior Will Fallini-Haas second (23:41.9) and sophomore Aidan McCarthy third (23:46.4).
Jake Ritter claimed his record third Big West individual title Saturday.
With the victory, Ritter became the first athlete in Big West history to capture three individual cross country titles. His time of 23:27.4 was also a conference meet record.
After medically redshirting a few meets into last season due to injury, Ritter returned this fall for one final attempt at making history. Now his name is forever etched in the conference record books.
"I really wanted to go out there and do something that no one else in The Big West had ever done," he said after the race, "so now I can say I've done that, and it feels great.
I just really had to push the entire way today, nothing out there was easy."
Two other Mustangs finished inside the top 10 to earn All-Big West honors as redshirt sophomore Anthony Guerra (23:53.3) took home sixth and redshirt junior John Bennett placed 10th (24:02.9). This is the second straight season Fallini-Haas and Guerra have secured all-conference praise.
Redshirt junior Xian Shively, who grabbed All-Big West honors at the 2021 meet, finished 12th, redshirt sophomore Spencer Thurman 14th, redshirt sophomore Erik Luu 26th and sophomore Godebo Chapman 38th to round out the runners that competed for the men at The Big West Championships.
The Cal Poly men were able to claim their record 18th Big West title, first since 2019, in Vanhoy's first season leading the program. Vanhoy wasn't surprised by the Mustangs' dominance Saturday because he saw the pieces of a conference championship contender when he took over the job in June.
"It's just a testament to the talent that was in the program when we got here," Vanhoy said. "It's a credit to the guys on the team buying in and the culture here and we had a group of guys that were very, very hungry to do something big."
Mustang runners were battling side-by-side with one another throughout Saturday's race, a sign of the talent this men's team possesses, Ritter said.
"Any of our top five could be our first guy on any given day," he said. "That just shows that we are all kind of on the same level and working toward the same goal which is making it to nationals this year."
The Cal Poly women (63 points) also put on an impressive performance, closing strong to edge out UC Irvine (64) by 1 point, the closest finish in the history of The Big West Championships.
"It was a full team effort and probably our best collective effort of the season so far," women's cross country head coach Michelle Chewens said. "I think going into today we knew it could be a close battle between three or four teams and if we had a really good day we could maybe sneak by and get the win, and the women executed perfectly. They moved up tremendously over the last 1K."
Standout sophomore Julia Heckey led the way for the Mustangs, finishing the 6K course in 19:50.2 to earn third and secure All-Big West honors.
Four other runners placed inside the top 20 individually to help Cal Poly emerge victorious in a tightly contested race. Graduate student Sydnie Rivas grabbed 12th (20:34.5), freshman Tatiana Cornejo 14th (20:41.3), redshirt junior Misty Diaz 15th (20:44.7) and sophomore Carissa Buchholz 19th (20:52.8).
Redshirt junior Amanda Olla crossed the finish line in 32nd, sophomore Nina St. John took 35th, freshman Riley Cash secured 44th and sophomore Ellie Baxter earned 50th.
After being overlooked entering the race, multiple runners picked up valuable points for the Mustang women in the final moments of the race to help Chewens raise a Big West trophy in her first season as head coach.
"All the credit goes to them," Chewens said. "The women have bought in. As a coach when you come in you make adjustments, you try to change the culture, but ultimately it has to come from within the team and I think our women are really great about running together … and today they just ran for each other."
For the women, this is their eighth Big West title all-time.
Cal Poly travels to University Place, Wash., on Friday, Nov. 11, to compete in the NCAA West Regional.
