Nov. 19, 2007
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State cross country team had a great building year in 2007. The Aztecs featured a young squad led by their senior team captain Lisa Naucler and in the process built a solid foundation for the future.
Despite having only one senior on the squad, SDSU still posted four top-10 finishes, including a runner-up effort at the Big Wave Invitational in Hawaii. San Diego State's first top-10 performance came at the Fullerton Season Opener where it posted its eighth such effort in the past nine seasons. Naucler led the way with for the first time in what would be a string of seven consecutive races, as the Aztecs came in seventh place.
At the Aztec Invitational, SDSU's lone home meet of the season, Naucler led a group of Aztecs that set personal records in Darien Buc and Anne Vieira, and season-bests in Stephanie Armstrong, Makenzie Mabry, Sara Cunningham, Elizabeth Leonard, Lindsay Barajas and Lindsey Deane. Following a performance in which she posted SDSU's top time for a second straight week, Naucler earned Mountain West Conference athlete of the week honors for the first time of her career.
After spending the first two weeks of the season in southern California, the Aztecs traveled to Hawaii for the Big Wave Invite. It was on the 4,000-meter course that SDSU had six of its athletes finish in the top 20. San Diego State was paced by Naucler, who logged an eighth-place finish with a personal-record time of 15 minutes, 13 seconds. Armstrong posted a solid effort as she finished 12th, with Kristin Glen, Alyssa Robinson and Vieira, coming in 15th, 16th and 19th place, respectively. SDSU's second-place performance was its best since winning the 2005 Santa Clara Invitational.
Upon returning to San Diego, the Aztecs split their squad with the `A' group competing in the Stanford Invitational and the `B' team racing in the UC Riverside Invitational. At the end of the day, San Diego State had all 13 competing runners establish personal records. SDSU's top performer at the 6K Stanford Invite was Naucler, while Cunningham took team-best honors at the 5K UCR meet.
Following a week off for the `A' team and with the `B' squad taking eighth at the Triton Classic, the Aztecs made a return trip to northern California to compete in the Bronco Invitational. Returning to the site of its `05 team title, three SDSU athletes in Armstrong, Buc and Vieira set lifetime bests in the 5K. Of the three, Vieira posted the largest margin in relation to her previous PR as she ran the race 1:17 faster than her old benchmark.
In one last tune-up, San Diego State competed in the Cougar 5K Challenge and had all eight runners place in the top 50. Leading the way for the Aztecs was Barajas, who turned in a personal-best time of 19:08. Joining the sophomore was Glen, who also set a personal record with a time of 19:13 heading into the MWC Championships. For her lifetime-best effort, Barajas became the second Aztec of the season to be named Mountain West athlete of the week, the league announced.
Unfortunately for San Diego State, wildfires in San Diego County forced the school and the league to move the conference championships to Albuquerque, N.M., for the second time in SDSU and MWC history. After hearing word of the venue change, the Aztecs made the last-minute trip to New Mexico to prepare for the championships. After it was all said and done, SDSU made the best of the situation and placed ninth.
At the NCAA West Regional Championships in Oregon, the Aztecs had a strong showing as their top finisher, Naucler, completed the race in 22:57.24, nine seconds faster than 2006's top performer in Celeste Tyson (23:06.31). In addition to Naucler's regional-meet effort, San Diego State had its top-six finishers post times faster than its second-place athlete from 2006.
With only one senior graduating, the Aztecs certainly have a bright future after going through the rigors of a long season and gaining experience running in high-level meets. The foundation for success has definitely been set.