by Ryan Allen
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne cross country team felt it ran a lot better in the past two weeks then it did last Saturday at La Mirada Regional Park in the Biola Invitational. La Verne finished 12th among teams in their conference in the five mile meet.
Even with the poor showing, La Verne’s assistant cross country coach Gil Gomez said, “Five people had personal records, there were only three that didn’t.”
Head coach Pat Widolff said, “Everybody’s running is improving. [Unfortunately], a couple of people have injuries.”
With their No. 1 runner, freshman Mario Guerrero, out with strained quadriceps, freshmen Faust Obeso and Kyle Young, the Nos. 2 and 3 runners respectively, tried to pick up the slack.
Due to illness and a week of hard work, both Obeso and Young felt tired and as a consequence they ran slower than they would have liked. Obeso lead the Leopards finishing 87th overall with a time of 30:05.9. Young finished with a time of 30:59.9.
“We worked harder [last week] so I was tired.” said Young.
“We don’t want them fresh,” said Gomez, who said he wants to train the team hard now so by conference everyone will hopefully be fresh.
Sophomore Mike Hernandez crossed the finish line with a time of 31:20.3 and finishing only seven seconds behind was junior Danny Eckardt with a time of 31:27.3
ULV is preparing for a meet at La Mirada in two weeks, where all the teams in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference will compete.
