Sept. 15, 2016
WEEKLY RELEASE | UCR INVITE MEET INFO | MEET ENTIRES
SAN DIEGO -- Following a solid start to the season at the Mark Covert Classic on Sept. 3, the San Diego State cross country team will look to continue its success at the UC Riverside Cross Country Invitational on Sat., Sept. 17.
The women's 5K collegiate open starts at 8:45 a.m. and follows the women's 6K invitational at 7:30 a.m. and the men's 8K invitational at 8:05 a.m. The award presentation is set for 9:15 a.m.
The UC Riverside course is mostly flat with a few rolling hills, winding through orange groves and eucalyptus trees. It has hard-packed dirt with pre-competition watering to reduce dust.
The meet will be held at the UCR Agricultural Operations Course, which is adjacent to the UCR campus on the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Canyon Crest Drive. General parking is available at UCR Lot 30 for $5. From the 215/60 freeway, exit Martin Luther King and go west. Pass through the Canyon Crest traffic light and make a right into UCR Lot 30.
The Aztecs and host Highlanders will be racing alongside 38 additional teams (15 addition Division I teams), including competitors from Arkansas, Azusa Pacific, Cal Poly, Cal State East Bay, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge, Cal State San Marcos, Chapman, Claremont-Mudd, Fresno Pacific, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UNLV, USC, Utah Valley and Whittier.
The Aztecs have entered seniors Angel Bucci, Christine Kent and Elaine Ribeiro, junior Cali King, sophomore Lily Seynaeve and Cassidy Towner, and freshman Mary Kunigan.
At the UC Riverside Invitational last year, the Aztecs finished fourth out of 23 teams in the 6,000-meter invitational race and third out of 20 squads in the 5K open race. In the invitational 6K, Elaine Ribeiro led SDSU for the second straight race, taking 17th out of 172 runners in a personal-best time of 21 minutes, 42.6 seconds. Ribeiro was one of five San Diego State runners (out of seven) who PR'd in the 6K race. The time was the seventh-fastest in school history.
San Diego State visits Riverside, Calif., following an impressive showing at the Mark Covert Classic. Seniors Christine Kent and Elaine Ribeiro finished among Division I competitors in the top two, helping the Scarlet and Black to a second-place finish at the race. Kent beat out 134 of her 135 competitors in the race with a time of 17 minutes, 52.8 seconds.
Final results from the race will be posted on GoHighlanders.com, FinishedResults.com (https://registration.finishedresults.com/meets/228) and later on GoAztecs.com.