Aztecs Racing in UCR Invitational Saturday

Meet Week Preview
UC Riverside Invitational (6K)
Saturday, Sept. 15 | 7:30 a.m. PT | UCR Agricultural Operations Course | Riverside, Calif.

The San Diego State cross country team heads to Riverside, Calif. on Saturday to compete in the annual UCR Invitational. The 6k race begins at 7:30 a.m. and results will be available on the Finished Results app as well on GoAztecs.com. 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. Nine Aztecs will be competing: Paige Comiso, Caitlyn Couch, Marissa D'Atri, Isabelle Davis, Alize Hartke, Renee Laurenzana, Carlene Masar, Natalie Medina, and Natalie Regalado.

Last Time Out
The Aztecs opened up the season by finishing eighth out of 14 in the Mark Covert Classic 5k in Brea, Calif. Alize Hartke was the top Aztec, finishing in 19 minutes flat, good for 55th place (out of 163 athletes). Head Coach Robert Lusitana praised the young team's effort, "The team performed well for their first meet. All the ladies competed fiercely against the steep competition. Alize Hartke did an exceptional job moving up throughout the race to be our first finisher. Caitlin Couch was courageous and pulled the team out, setting the pace for the Aztecs early. The top five women worked well together."

Aztec Storylines
• The Aztecs have been running in this meet since 2003, but have only been running the 6k event since 2014. The SDSU course record for the 6k is held by Christine Kent, who finished in 20:47.8 in 2016. Lily Seynaeve was the Aztecs' top finisher last year with a time of 21:30.0 and SDSU took 12th place out of 17 teams.

• Like their last race, all SDSU runners competing Saturday will be freshmen, meaning this will be the first 6k of their college careers.

• The Aztecs will be returning to Riverside again October 13th for the Highlander Invitational.

• In their last race, the Aztecs' top finishers all crossed the finish line within 22 seconds of each other. Alize Hartke paced SDSU, finishing in 19:00.0. Not far behind her was Carlene Masar, who crossed the finish line in 19:03.4 (61st place). The rest of the Aztecs' top five consisted of Paige Comiso (19:10.4; 65th), Caitlyn Couch (19:13.7; 67th) and Marissa D'Atri (19:21.7; 71st).
.