Bio entering 2025 track season
San Diego State alum Robert Lusitana is in his eighth year as a member of the San Diego State track and field/cross country program staff as the distance and head cross country coach.
For the second consecutive cross country season, Lusitana’s squad made some history throughout the 2024 season. Finishing 14th at the NCAA West Regionals, it is the highest placement for the team since 2005 and the second-best finish since the meet moved to a 6K race. Individually, Vanessa Cabello finished 56th overall marking the highest individual finish for SDSU since that same 2005 season.
They also recorded their first ever 6K team victory with a win at the Highlander Invitational as well as the fastest team time in program history. Of their five 6K races throughout 2024, three ranked among the program’s six fastest team times in history.
On the track in 2023, mentored two all-Mountain West performers in seniors Alex Lomeli (800m) and Jessica Kain (1,500m). Lomeli’s silver medal was the highest placement by an Aztec in the 800m race since 2000 while Kain’s silver was her second consecutive in the 1,500m. The duo qualified for the NCAA West prelims in their respective events as well. Vanessa Cabello also scored points at the conference championship finishing seventh in the 10,000m. It is the first time an Aztec scored points in the 10K race since 2014.
During the 2022-2023 seasons, Lusitano oversaw a career year from Jessica Kain. During cross country, she broke the program record for the 6K twice and moved into the top ten all-time for the 5K. Switching gears into track, she earned All-Mountain West honors in the Indoor Mile and the outdoor 1500m, where she also qualified for the NCAA West Regionals. He also mentored Alex Lomeli, who ran the second fastest 800m in program history during the outdoor season.
In 2021-2022, Lusitano’s distance group was led by Lauren Harper. Breaking into SDSU’s all-time top ten, she qualified for the NCAA regionals in the 800m while earning all-conference honors in the event for both the indoor and outdoor seasons. In cross country, his team finished 23rda overall at the NCAA regionals, the highest finish for the program since 2005.
The 2020-21 season was limited to just an outdoor season due to COVID-19. In that lone season, Jessica Kain qualified for her first NCAA meet in the 1500m becoming the first to do so for that event since the format was adopted in 2003. Her time of 4:21.87 ranked as the fastest by an Aztec since 1982 and is the fourth fastest in program history.
Lusitano inherited a very young distance/cross country group and began building up the success of the program right out of the gates led by former program record holder in the cross country 6K, Christine Kent.
Prior to joining the Aztecs, Lusitana was an assistant cross country and track coach at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego, Calif., beginning in 2013. The Ravens placed third or better each of Lusitana’s four seasons on the staff, advancing to the CIF state championship meet each of the last six years. In 2016, Canyon Crest placed second in the CIF San Diego Section Division II championship, led by race-winner Kira Loren. The Ravens placed ninth at the state cross country championships.
Lusitana’s other coaching stop was a two-year tenure on the cross country and track staff at Torrey Pines High School in La Jolla, Calif. He was an assistant coach for the 1985-86 school year before he was elevated to head coach for the 1986-87 season. Lusitana left coaching in 1988 to run his business, Redsand Inc., an action sports clothing company. Lusitana and his partners sold the company to Perry Ellis in 2003 and he then became a manager and partner of Amigo Custom Screen Prints in Carlsbad, Calif.
Lusitana also directed City Slickers Can’t Stay With Me, a film about National Track and Field Hall of Fame distance running coach Bob Larsen, a San Diego State graduate and former head coach at UCLA. Larsen led UCLA to two NCAA Outdoor Track and Field titles, winning national coach of the year honors four times, and helped found Team USA Running Group in 2001. He also coached Meb Keflezighi, who is the only marathoner in history to win the Boston Marathon, the New York City Marathon and an Olympic medal.
A San Diego native, Lusitana ran on UCLA’s cross country team in 1979, which was the first Bruin team to advance to the NCAA Cross Country Championships. He also competed in track for one year at San Diego State, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in accounting in 1982. He trained with the Jamul Toads Running Club from 1977-85.