Oct. 11, 2003
SAN DIEGO - With three runners placing in the top 20, the San Diego State women's cross country team matched its season best finish, coming in third (94 pts.) at the 6K UCSD Triton Classic Saturday in La Jolla, Calif. The Aztecs, who jumped three places from their 2002 finish in the same meet, came in behind No. 12 UCLA (60 pts.) and UC Irvine (62 pts.) in the team standings.
"I was very happy with the (runners') groupings today," Aztec coach Jennifer Nanista said. "The team moved up and had a strong showing, especially Kylie Edwards who did a good job of closing up the gaps."
San Diego State senior Marie Nilsson (Kil, Sweden) led the way again, finishing sixth overall with a time of 22:30.20, the fifth fastest 6K time in SDSU history. Sophomore Christal Cuadra (Honolulu, Hawaii) was the second Aztec to cross the finish line for the fourth time this season, posting a 13th-place effort of 23:00.6. Senior Kylie Edwards (Mt. Dundeed, Australia) rounded out the top 20 with her best 6K time of the season, finishing 19th in 23:40.20.
Also placing in the top 70 out of the 199-runner field were Aztecs Allison Brown (29th - 24:05.90), Christian Fairing (37th - 24:15.30), Sara Cates (53rd - 24:41.50), Tina Fodor (55th - 24:44.40), Celeste Tyson (64th - 25:02.30) and Angie Fitzpatrick (65th - 25:09.20).
San Diego State will head north to Long Beach for the Long Beach State Invitational next Saturday, before taking a week off to prepare for next month's Mountain West Conference championship, set for Nov. 1, in San Diego.