NIPOMO, Calif. — The Cal Poly cross country program's recent dominance over the conference was on full display Friday at the Blacklake Golf Resort as the Mustangs swept the team titles at the season-opening Big West Preview.
Hosting its first meet in seven years, the Mustangs showed flashes of what they are capable of this fall as the women rolled to a 28-point victory over second-place UC Riverside and the men edged out rival UC Santa Barbara by 18 points to claim first.
Outside of Cal Poly, six Big West schools participated in the meet held at the site of this year's Big West Championships.
The Mustangs captured the top two places in the men's 6K race as redshirt sophomore Spencer Pickren (pictured above) hit the afterburners in the final few hundred meters to edge out teammate Will Fallini-Haas by less than a second. Pickren, who qualified for the NCAA West Preliminaries in the 1,500-meter this spring, crossed the finish line with a time of 18:01.7 to earn the individual title, while Fallini-Haas took second with a time of 18:02.5.Junior Hana Catsimanes was the top finisher for the women during Friday's Big West Preview in Nipomo.
Redshirt freshman Oscar Gomez also finished inside the top 10, placing ninth (18:29.3). Colton Swinth, the 2023 Big West champion in the 10,000, secured 13th (18:34.7) and redshirt freshman Lewis Westwood was right behind him in 14th (18:36.3). Redshirt sophomore Michael Chambers (16th, 18:37.0), redshirt freshman Carson Smith (26th, 18:49.4), redshirt sophomore Euan Houston (61st, 19:24.4) and redshirt freshman Jacob Donohue (65th, 19:35.3) also competed for the Cal Poly men.
Freshman Chris Caudillo, one of the top distance runners in the nation in the class of 2023, ran unattached in the men's race, placing third (18:14.3).
On the women's side, the Mustangs stayed in a fairly tight pack throughout as seven runners finished inside the top 17. Junior Hana Catsimanes, a transfer from Wake Forest, led the way in her first race as a Mustang placing fourth with a 5K time of 17:49.9. Tatiana Cornejo, the 2022 Big West Women's Freshman of the Year, was close behind, grabbing fifth (17:57.0).
Sophomore Riley Cash took home seventh (18:13.0) and redshirt junior Kaia Hoak earned 10th (18:14.9). Redshirt sophomore Isabel Sanchez captured 13th (18:17.6) and junior Ellie Baxter crossed the finish line in 16th (18:23.7). In their first collegiate race, freshmen Ashlyn Leath and Sydney Sundgren placed 17th (18:25.5) and 20th (18:28.4) respectively to round out the runners for the Mustang women. Freshman Kelli Gaffney, running unattached, placed 15th in the race.
Last year, Cal Poly swept the Big West titles for the sixth time in program history, and on Friday the Mustangs proved to the rest of the conference that another is within reach when they host the Big West Championships on Oct. 27.
The Mustangs return to the site of their 2022 conference championship sweep on Saturday, Oct. 16, to compete in the UC Riverside Invitational at UCR's Ags/Ops Course.
