Oct. 27, 2011
SAN DIEGO -
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San Diego State begins its championship season Saturday at the Mountain West Cross Country Championships in Fort Collins, Colo. The 6,000-meter women's race is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. MT at the Collindale Golf Course.
At last year's championships, the Aztecs finished in seventh place. It was the team's best finish since taking fifth in 2005 and the second consecutive championship meet that they improved on their previous year's finish (eighth in 2009, ninth in 2008). Competing at 7,220 feet in Laramie, Wyo., SDSU had the best finish of the non-elevation schools with 214 points, ahead of UNLV (216) and TCU (219). The six teams that trained at elevation took the top spots, led by then 10th-ranked New Mexico (20).
San Diego State is coming off a third-place showing of 13 teams at the UC San Diego Triton Classic way back on Oct. 8. It was the team's second straight third-place finish after taking fifth of eight teams and 26th of 32 in the first two meets of the season.
Marianne Hogan has led the way for the Aztecs in all four races this year and 10 straight dating back to last season. Hogan, who has twice been named the MW Athlete of the Week this year and four times in her career, has a first, second and third-place finish over her four races. If you take away the unattached runners, she has two firsts and a runner-up showing against collegiate competition.
Josefine Koskinen, meanwhile, has been SDSU's No. 2 runner in each of the four races, highlighted by ninth-place finish at UCSD on Oct. 8. Taylor Johnson, a transfer from Arkansas, has been third on the team in all four races.
Other runners competing in the 6K race on Saturday for San Diego State include Niki Novak, Hannah Carman and Seanie Rigney.
At last year's MW Championships, Hogan led the Aztecs with a 20th-place finish out of 71 runners in a 6K time of 22:56.4. Koskinen also competed in the race, taking 54th in 24:49.9.
Results and photos from the race will be posted at TheMWC.com following the meet.