Nov. 6, 2006
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Cross Country Weekly Release in PDF Format
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SDSU Cross Country to Compete at NCAA West Regionals
San Diego State resumes its postseason schedule this weekend after taking last week off when it runs at the NCAA West Regional Championships in Portland, Ore. The 6,000-meter race is set to begin at 10 a.m. PST at Blue Lake Park.
Bids to the national meet in Terre Haute, Ind., are on the line as the top two teams will receive automatic invitations to the Nov. 20 championship. The top four runners not on the top-two finishing teams will also receive invitations to participate as individual entries.
The Aztecs are set to bring seniors Celeste Tyson and Jackie Duncan, juniors Lital Azulay, Meryl Follosco and Lisa Naucler and freshmen Stephanie Armstrong and Jessica Mason to the regional meet. Of the seven, only Tyson, Azulay and Naucler have experience running at regionals.
The last Aztec to qualify for the NCAA meet was Sophia Hawker, who earned an at-large bid in 1999. Hawker finished 24th of 196 runners at the 5K regional meet that year, which was held in Troutdale, Ore.
SDSU has only qualified once as a team for the national championships, where it finished seventh in 1981.
Bye Week Good for Aztecs ... Again
The meet following a bye week has produced great results for Aztec runners this season. Earlier this year after competing in the Fullerton Season Opener, SDSU had a bye week and then played host to the Aztec Invitational. It was in their lone home meet that five SDSU runners established Aztec personal bests, while four others set season bests. Less than a month later, the SDSU `A' team had the week off and came back to set five lifetime bests and two season-low times at the Santa Clara Invite. At the MWC Championships two weeks ago, San Diego State had three set Aztec career bests and another three establish season-low times. This Saturday, SDSU will look to continue that trend as it looks to improve upon last year's best-ever seventh-place finish.
Oregon Kind to Aztecs
Oregon has historically been kind to SDSU as it finished seventh earlier this year at the Willamette Invitational in Salem. It was at that meet that Celeste Tyson set a then season-best time in the 5K, while six others had either personal- (three) or season-best (three) efforts. In fact, the last time San Diego State had a runner (Sophia Hawker in 1999) qualify for the national meet, the regional was held in Oregon.
NCAA West Regionals Bring Out Best in Aztecs
As the season moves forward, Aztec runners get stronger and history shows that regionals bring out the best in them. Of the 10 all-time top 6K times in school history, five have occurred at the regional meet and all have happened during the last three years. Last season, Lital Azulay registered the second fastest time in program history, while Lisa Crampton (fourth) and Christal Cuadra (sixth) also etched their names in the Aztec record book. The complete top 10 can be found on page two of this release.
Taking It Back to 2005: The NCAA West Regional
San Diego State had five Aztecs record career-best times at the 2005 NCAA West Regional championships at Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, Calif. SDSU posted its best-ever finish at a regional meet, placing seventh out of 30 schools with 290 points.
Leading the Aztecs' charge was Lital Azulay who crossed the finish line at 21:05.80, which was the second-fastest 6K time by an SDSU runner in school history. Azulay finished 21st in a field of 199 runners and just missed Marie Nilsson's school-record mark of 21:04 set at the 2003 NCAA regional meet.
Azulay was followed by Lisa Crampton, who placed 39th at 21:32.30, the fourth-fastest mark in school history. Christal Cuadra made her final collegiate appearance a memorable one, placing 60th with a career-best effort of 21:50.90, the sixth-fastest time in SDSU history. Celeste Tyson (79th - 22:20.60) and sophomore Lisa Naucler (99th -22:42.20) also logged career-bests for the Aztecs. Rounding out the SDSU contingent was Sarah Belger (22:56.0) and Sara Cates (23:18.5) finished 115th and 137th, respectively.