Cal Poly Cross Country Hosts Big West Preview to Open Season

Friday, September 1

Nipomo, CA / Blacklake Golf Resort

8:30 A.M.

Big West Preview

Cal Poly Cross Country Practice Team Photo 2023

Photo by: Eyasu Betwos

Cal Poly Cross Country Hosts Big West Preview to Open Season

8/30/2023 4:30:00 PM | Cross Country

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly cross country program opens its conference championship title defense Friday morning when they host the Big West Preview meet at the Blacklake Golf Resort in Nipomo.

Action starts at 8:30 a.m. with the women's 5K, followed by the men's 6K at 9:15 a.m. Live results from the meet are available HERE.

Outside of Cal Poly, six Big West schools will be making the trip to Nipomo to get a sneak peek at the site of this year's Big West Championship — CSUN, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara. In addition, Cal State Monterey Bay and Westmont will also compete, along with the San Diego State women's team.

The event will mark the first time since 2016 that Cal Poly has hosted a cross country meet. The course for the women's 5K consists of one 1K loop and a pair of 2K loops, while the men will run three 2K loops.

Last year, the Mustangs swept the men's and women's Big West titles for the sixth time in program history. The men rolled to the conference trophy with five runners finishing inside the top 10 and three of those runners are back this season — Will Fallini-Haas, Aidan McCarthy and Anthony Guerra. The Cal Poly women return plenty of experience from their Big West title-winning squad as well, with six of their top nine runners coming back. Julia Heckey, Tatiana Cornejo, Carissa Buchholz, Nina St. John, Riley Cash and Ellie Baxter will look to lead the Mustangs to a Big West repeat after helping the team edge out UC Irvine by 1 point last fall in the closest finish in the history of the conference meet.

Cal Poly also has plenty of new faces this season — 21 to be exact. The men have 10 freshmen — Jonah Bazerkanian, Chris Caudillo, Jude DeVries, Tyler Downs, Dheeraj Gurusamy, Bille Issa, Parker Long, Mateo Malko-Allen, Ethan Miller and Micah Sanchez — and two transfers — Davis Bove (LSU) and Bryce Kueker (San Diego Mesa). The women have nine newcomers — Wake Forest transfer Hana Catsimanes, and freshmen Emma Arredondo, Danica Brinkman, Megan Clenney, Kelli Gaffney, Lianna Guerra, Ashlyn Leath, Emma Ruvalcaba and Sydney Sundgren.

Following Friday's meet, the Mustangs will travel back to the site of their 2022 conference sweep on Saturday, Sept. 16, to compete in the UC Riverside Invitational.