Sept. 18, 2004
SAN DIEGO - Aztec junior Christal Cuadra (Honolulu, Hawai'i) finished in 35th place to pace the San Diego State women's cross country team to a 13th-place team finish (283 pts.) in the 60th Annual Aztec Invitational at Balboa Park on Saturday. 20th-ranked Duke University won the women's invitational race with a near-perfect 18 points, followed by Arizona (97 pts.), No. 15 Northern Arizona (109 pts.), Southern Utah (149 pts.) and USC (176 pts.).
"I was happy with our grouping today," SDSU assistant coach Jennifer Nanista said. "We had a 33-second gap between our number 2 and 7 runners. It's still early in the season and we will get faster."
Cuadra, who didn't compete in the first two races for SDSU this season, completed the 5,000-meter course in 19 minutes, 44 seconds. Duke's Shannon Rowbury won the invitational race with time of 17:03, the ninth fastest time in Aztec Invitational history.
Sophomore Ali Baker was the next Aztec runner to cross the line in 61st place (20:21). Following Baker was freshman Brookie Dettermann (68th, 20:27), sophomores Celeste Tyson (70th, 20:28), Sara Cates (77th, 20:43), and Christian Fairing (80th, 20:53) and junior Jackie Duncan (82nd, 20:54). Junior Jamillah Titus (100th, 21:32) and senior Emily Joller (105th, 21:58) also finished the course for SDSU.
Quest Club's Michelle Resendez won the open individual title in a time of 19:21, while Central Arizona captured the team crown.
In the men's invitational meet, Obed Mutanya of Central Arizona won the race with a time of 25:02, tied for the third-fastest time on the 8K course. Northern Arizona won the meet with 65 points over Arizona (87 pts.) and Southern Utah (107 pts.). Pima CC won the men's open meet (30 pts.), led by Soro Bassirima's first-place finish in 26:51.
The Aztecs will travel to compete in the Stanford Invitational at 4 p.m. Saturday.