Big West Championships
Cal Poly Men, Women Both Achieve Big West Three-Peat
11/2/2024 5:00:00 PM | Cross Country
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — It was business as usual for the Cal Poly cross country program Saturday at UC Riverside’s Ag/Ops Course as the Mustangs swept the Big West men’s and women’s team titles for the third straight year.
For the Mustang men, it was their 20th Big West title overall and they have now won seven of the last eight conference titles. The women captured their 10th Big West title and eighth in their last 12 attempts.
With its third consecutive sweep of the team titles, Cal Poly joined rarefied air becoming just the second school in conference history to accomplish the feat. UC Irvine three-peated on two occasions, first in 1985-87 and again in 1989-91. No team has ever achieved four straight Big West sweeps.
“I think setting the standard of winning the Big West is our goal every single year,” Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Ryan Vanhoy said afterwards, “so to be able to come out and do that on both sides for me feels like we’re continuing to make a good statement.”
That’s a Mustang 3??-peat ??????
— Cal Poly TF/XC (@CalPolyTrack_XC) November 2, 2024
For the third straight year, the Cal Poly men capture The Big West title ?? The Mustangs sweep the podium as Davis Bove, Chris Caudillo and Colton Swinth finish 1-2-3 and five runners place in the top 10!!#RideHigh???? pic.twitter.com/dYFlhJ17lw
The back-to-back Big West champ ?? Davis Bove ??#RideHigh???? pic.twitter.com/SbK0qlHb0s
— Cal Poly TF/XC (@CalPolyTrack_XC) November 2, 2024
Cal Poly coasted to the conference title on the men’s side, finishing a commanding 51 points in front of second place Cal State Fullerton. It’s the first Big West three-peat on the men’s side since Cal Poly won four straight from 2016 to 2019. Graduate student Davis Bove, sophomore Chris Caudillo and senior Colton Swinth placed first, second and third respectively to help the Mustangs finish with 22 team points, matching the exact same total they had when they won in 2022 on the exact same course while sweeping the top three places.
Bove high-fived fans as he crossed the finish line to claim his second straight Big West men’s individual title with an 8K time of 23:51.3. The Franklin, Tenn. native is the first repeat Big West champion on the men’s side since Cal Poly’s Jake Ritter in 2018-19 and the 10th in conference history.
“Grateful would be an understatement,” Bove said about winning after the race. “Obviously, I crossed the line first, but I know my teammates worked just as hard as me and a lot of them will be winning a lot more races than me in the future … This one was really special. I felt like we executed really well and ran together as a team.”
Caudillo, the 2023 Big West Freshman of the Year, secured second with an 8K time of 23:54.7 while Swinth earned third in 23:55.9. Two other Mustangs placed in the top 10 to secure All-Big West honors. Redshirt freshman Rory Catsimanes grabbed sixth (23:59.8) and redshirt junior Michael Chambers took 10th (24:02.4).
Anthony Guerra placed 12th (24:04.5), Jude DeVries 16th (24:14.4), Bryce Kueker 19th (24:23.3) and Lewis Westwood 28th (24:37.7) to round out the runners that crossed the finish line for the men.
“It was a good team effort,” Vanhoy said. “We had a lot of guys running together and working together through the back half of the race, which is what our plan was coming in.”
And why not another 3??-peat ?????
— Cal Poly TF/XC (@CalPolyTrack_XC) November 2, 2024
The Cal Poly women rolled to their third consecutive Big West Championship today and eighth in the last 13 years ?????? Schuyler Gooley won the individual title to lead the way and three other Mustangs earned All-Big West honors!!#RideHigh???? pic.twitter.com/4CQzWzfvHj
Schuyler ate today ??
— Cal Poly TF/XC (@CalPolyTrack_XC) November 2, 2024
Schuyler Gooley captured the Big West women’s 6K title (19:47.7) to become Cal Poly’s first individual medalist on the women’s side since 2019 ??#RideHigh???? pic.twitter.com/1WdFQynr1B
On the women’s side, Cal Poly achieved just the third-ever Big West three-peat and the first since UC Irvine four-peated from 1989-92. The Mustangs left the rest of the teams in the dust, finishing with 33 team points — the most by the Big West champion since 2021 and tied for the second-best score ever by Cal Poly at the meet.
“We’ve just been really focusing on our culture and things we can control the last several weeks and the big focus going into this meet was running as a team, which they really did today,” head women’s cross country coach Michelle Chewens said. “… It was a collective effort, every person ran really well.”
Senior Schuyler Gooley led the Mustang stampede, winning the women’s 6K Big West individual title with a personal best time of 19:47.7. Last year, Gooley placed fourth at the Big West meet and this is her third time earning All-Big West honors. She is Cal Poly’s first Big West individual champion on the women’s side since Miranda Daschian in 2019.
“I’m really excited for our team,” Gooley said. “… I’m just really proud of everyone on the team for putting it together for conference.”
Three other runners finished inside the top 10 to propel Cal Poly to a comfortable 37-point victory over second place UC Davis. Junior Tatiana Cornejo secured sixth place with a 6K personal-best time of 19:57.4. Senior Hana Catsimanes took home seventh with a PR (20:16.9) and redshirt sophomore Sophia Nordenholz grabbed eighth (20:21.5). For Cornejo and Catsimanes, it was their second straight year securing All-Big West honors.
Sophomore Kelli Gaffney rounded out the top five runners for Cal Poly, earning an impressive 12th-place finish by running a PR (20:35.8). Sydney Sundgren (14th, 20:43.0), Riley Cash (16th, 20:46.0), Isabel Sanchez (24th, 20:57.5), Ellie Baxter (25th, 20:58.5) and Renae Searls (43rd, 21:20.5) also competed for the women.
The Mustangs will now prepare for the NCAA West Regional hosted by Washington State on Friday, Nov. 15, at Colfax Golf Club.
