Oct. 12, 2016
Weekly Release | Meet Info | Live Results
Less than one month after setting six PRs and the program's 6K record in Riverside, Calif., the San Diego State cross country team will return to the UCR Ag Ops Course for the Highlander Invitational 5K on Sat., Oct. 15 at 8:30 a.m.
The Women's 5K Invitational kicks off at 8:30 a.m., following the Men's 6K Invitational at 8 a.m.
The race is the Aztecs' final tune-up before the Mountain West Championship in Kuna, Idaho on Oct. 28.
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 will be competing against runners from the host Highlanders, Arkansas, Azusa Pacific, Cal Coast Track Club, 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 Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UNLV, USC, Utah Valley and Whittier.
Entered into the race for SDSU are seniors Angel Bucci, Christine Kent, Cali King and Elaine Ribeiro and juniors Lily Seynaeve and Cassidy Towner, sophomore Chrissy Calain and freshman Mary Kunigan.
The last time San Diego State appeared at the UCR Ag Ops Course was at the UC Riverside Invitational 6K on Sept. 17. Nearly every Aztec that competed at the UC Riverside Invitational recorded her collegiate best en route to a fifth place team finish at the 6,000-meter race.
Seniors Christine Kent and Elaine Ribiero were the Aztecs' top finishers. Kent finished 11th out of 83 NCAA Division I runners with a time of 20 minutes, 47.8 seconds, running a PR that was nearly one-and-a-half minutes better than her previous PR (22:14). She also broke San Diego State's 6K record of 21:04.0, set by Marie Nilsson on Nov. 15, 2003.
San Diego State finished fifth out of eight NCAA Division I teams in Riverside with 148 points behind Arkansas (28), Cal Poly (47), Utah Valley (142) and UC Riverside (148). Rounding out the group was UC Irvine (6th, 214), Cal State Northridge (7th, 251) and Long Beach State (8th, 355).
The Scarlet and Black return to action following an 11th-place finish at the Capital Cross Challenge 6K in Sacramento, Calif., on Oct. 1. Ribeiro shaved off 00.2 from her 6K collegiate career best and notched the fifth-best time in program history at the Capital Cross Challenge, while Kent's 21:25.3 mark was good enough for a spot in sixth behind her classmate Ribeiro's time in Sacramento.
Final results from the race will be posted on GoHighlanders.com, FinishedResults.com (https://registration.finishedresults.com/meets/262) and later on GoAztecs.com.