Riverside Invitational
Cal Poly Men Claim First, Women Capture Second at UC Riverside Invitational
9/17/2022 1:00:00 PM | Cross Country
WOMEN'S INVITATIONAL RESULTS
MEN'S INVITATIONAL RESULTS
WOMEN'S OPEN RESULTS
MEN'S OPEN RESULTS
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In its first look at the 2022 Big West Championship course, the Cal Poly cross country program had a stellar showing as the men captured first and the women took home second at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday morning.
It's the second straight team title for the Cal Poly men, who opened the season on Sept. 3 with a victory over rival UC Santa Barbara at the Lagoon Invite. The Mustangs ran away from the rest of the 29 schools that scored at the meet, finishing 31 points ahead of second-place Southern Utah (90).
The Cal Poly women (141) captured second out of 31 teams, finishing just one point behind first-place Arizona (140).
The meet was held at UC Riverside's Ag/Ops Course, the site of this year's conference championships, and 10 of the 11 teams in the Big West competed in the invitational. The Mustangs left all their conference foes in the dust as the program seeks their 18th Big West title for the men this fall and their eighth for the women.
"This was a quick, fun trip for our program to preview the conference course and see how we matched up against some inter-regional competition," Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Ryan Vanhoy said. "I was very impressed all around with how we competed today."
Sophomore Aidan McCarthy, who ran the second-fastest time in school history in the men's 800-meter this spring to place 15th at the NCAA West Preliminaries, led the way for the Cal Poly men Saturday, placing second with an 8K time of 23:45.9.
Will Fallini-Haas was close behind in fourth (23:49.8) and Anthony Guerra crossed the line in 13th (24:08.2). Rory Smail placed 17th (24:12.3), Colton Swinth 27th (24:18.7), Erik Luu 28th (24:19.3) and Spencer Thurman 29th (24:20.1) to round out the top seven runners for the Mustangs.
"Our men's team was led by Aidan and Will, who did an excellent job of setting the tone early for our group in their first outing of the year," Vanhoy said.
On the women's side, sophomore Julia Heckey led the charge in the 6K invitational race, running a personal best of 20:37.6 to secure 11th out of the 265 runners that competed.
Sydnie Rivas grabbed 22nd (20:52.2) and freshman Tatiana Cornejo earned 32nd (21:03.7) in her collegiate debut. Freshman Riley Cash finished 37th (21:11.2), Nina St. John 46th (21:20.9), Carissa Buchholz 63rd (21:31.2) and Amanda Olla 71st (21:36.7) to round out the top seven finishers for the Cal Poly women.
"It was a tight team battle with Arizona," women's cross country head coach Michelle Chewens said. "We are a bit disappointed to not have come away with the team title, however, I am very pleased with the progress our group has made over the last month."
Chewens was impressed with Heckey's performance.
"Julia did a tremendous job leading the group in the Invite race," she said. "She got in a great position early and really moved up well through the last two miles."
The Mustangs swept the individual titles in the Open races as well. Redshirt junior Misty Diaz captured first in the women's 5K and redshirt freshman Spencer Pickren claimed first in the men's Open 8K.
"Misty took control of the open race early," Chewens said about Diaz, "and it paid off as she came away with a dominating win."
Freshmen Lara Carrion (fourth) and Leila Swenson (eighth) also finished inside the top 10 in the women's Open race, while Cayden Hein (third) and Michael Chambers (fifth) earned top 10 results on the men's side to lead Cal Poly to the team title (39).
"We are one step closer to putting our full team together this season," Vanhoy said about the Cal Poly men. "We are excited to add Jake Ritter and Xian Shively back into the lineup in two weeks at Notre Dame and beyond."
Chewens said the women are getting better every day and the team is eager to get back to work.
"Today's results give us a lot of motivation to keep building momentum in training and racing," she said.
Cal Poly will send its top eight runners on the men's and women's side to the Joe Piane Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, on Friday, Sept. 30, while the rest of the team heads to Lodi, California, on the same day to take part in the Pacific Collegiate Invitational.
Players Mentioned
