Oct. 26, 2016
SAN DIEGO -
Coming off of its second race win of the year, San Diego State cross country visits Idaho for the 2016 Mountain West Cross Country Championships, hosted by Boise State, on Fri., Oct. 28.
The women's race, held at Falcon Crest Golf Club, will go off at 10 a.m. (MT) and the men will follow at 10:45 a.m. (MT). The Championships will be held on the club's Robin Hood and Freedom courses.
The Aztecs head into the Championships with two wins in their last three races, finishing in the top five in two additional races. They have been led this season by seniors Christine Kent and Elaine Ribiero, who have finished 1-2 on the team in four of five races this year. Each has earned a second-place finish (Kent - Highlander Invitational; Ribiero - Aztec Invitational) in one race during the season.
San Diego State has improved dramatically as the season has progressed. The spread between SDSU's top five finishers improved from 1:51:9 at the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 17 to 0:57.71 at the Highlander Invitational on Oct. 15.
Entered into the race for SDSU are seniors Angel Bucci, Christine Kent, Cali King and Elaine Ribeiro and juniors Lily Seynaeve and Cassidy Towner, and freshman Mary Kunigan.
San Diego State will have a tough test at the conference meet, competing against three runners ranked among the top 20 in the Saucony Flo50 Individual Cross Country Rankings. Heading into the championship, Boise State's Brenna Peloquin is the nation's top-ranked runner, New Mexico's Alice Wright is ranked No. 3 and her teammate Calli Thackery sits 19th. Entering the championship, the Mountain West has the second-most runners ranked in the top 20 behind the Pac-12 (6).
At the 2015 Mountain West Championships, the Aztecs were ninth with 267 points. Cassidy Towner was the team's top finisher at 35th (24:58.97). Lily Seynaeve finished 67th (26:32.95) and Cali King was 70th (26:41.22).
Final results from the Championships will be posted on TheMW.com Cross Country Championships Central page and later on GoAztecs.com. Photos from the race will be posted at TheMWC.com following the meet. During the meet, content will be available on Twitter (@MW_OlySports), Facebook (Facebook.com/MountainWestConference), Instagram (@MountainWestConference) and Snapchat (@MountainWest), courtesy of the Mountain West staff.
After the Mountain West Championships, San Diego State will venture to the state's capital for the NCAA West Regional. The regional meet is Fri., Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. at Sacramento's Haggin Oaks Golf Complex.