Riverside, CA– The San Diego Mesa men's and women's cross country squads traveled to the Highlander Invite at the Ag-Ops course at UC Riverside. The Men finished 4th one point behind New Mexico State (109-110), while the Olympian women took 20th place. Both the Men and Women competed at a longer distance, which included 8000m for Men (1 mile longer) and 6000m for Women (1000m Longer).
Stefen Rasmuson 2nd place 24:17, Isaiah Labra 10th place 24:38, and Bobby Brana 18th place 24:48 all led the Men's squad to place 4th finishing ahead of four-year programs such as UC Riverside, UC Irvine, and USD. Adding depth to the scoring squad was Cristian Alcantar 51st place 25:27, Medhane Woldu 54th place 25:36, and freshman Esteban Magana 58th 25:39.
The Women's team was lead by Yahaira Zuniga who covered the 6k distance in 22:49 with a 65th place finish. Zuniga was followed by Beyonce Wright 149th place 24:57, Adriana Leal 153rd place 25:05, Grace Calegari 162nd place 25:19, and rounding out the scorers was MyKenzie Belliotti 204th place 28:38.
"Our goals for this meet were to give our athletes one more opportunity to gain experience and exposure competing against four-year programs and race a longer distance before we head into the championship phase of the season" explained Head Coach Sean Ricketts.
Next up is the PCAC Conference Championships on Friday, October 25 at Morley Field. The Women's 5K race is at 2:45 and the Men's 4 Mile race is at 3:45.
Excerpt from article by By Landon Negri for DyeStat
San Diego Mesa’s men are ranked No. 1 in the state community college rankings, and Saturday offered a rare chance to trade swings with four-year schools at an 8-kilometer distance.
They swung well, too, as the Olympians were fourth and boasted top-10 finishes with Rasmuson and sophomore Isaiah Labra (10th, 24:38.7), demonstrating San Diego Mesa is among the elite two-year programs in the country.
“I really like it,” said Rasmuson, who ran nearly two minutes faster than this meet a year ago.
“It’s almost like we’re going against competition that’s even harder than what we have in our state. Then once we actually go to state, we’ll have a good chance to run a really good time.”
He’ll have to wait, though. First, Mesa has the PCAC Conference Championships on Oct. 25 at Morley Field and the regional championships Nov. 8 at Mission Bay, before the community college state meet Nov. 23 at Woodward Park in Fresno.