by Chrissy Zehrbach
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne’s men’s and women’s cross country teams competed last Saturday at the UC Riverside Invitational in which they placed 22nd and 9th, respectively.
Competition for the Leopards included various running clubs, other Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference members, as well as other universities such as Utah State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Azusa Pacific and UC Santa Barbara.
The conditions of the Agricultural Operations Course at UCR included running through orange groves, dirt, rocks and over hills. The Leopards said the meet was a hard work-out, and when combined with the heat of the weekend, it was a definite challenge.
But the Leopards fared well against this challenge. Sophomore captain Cecilio Barrera was the top finisher for the ULV men.
Barrera placed 60th out of approximately 300 racers with a time of 26:31 in his 8,000 meter race; the winner posted a time of 24:31:80.
Head coach Pat Widolff said the men’s team in particular is doing very well so far this year.
“They’re competing at a high level,” Widolff said.
“So far, so good it’s still early.” The men finished 22nd out of 26 teams in the invitational.
As for the women’s team, the top finisher was freshman Alexis Candelaria, who finished the 5,000 meter race in 21:43, only 3:33 behind the top finisher in her race. She placed 57th overall, also out of approximately 300 racers.
With only three returners, but a lot of support from incoming freshmen, the women’s team is “a better improvement than last year,” said sophomore captain Amby Sarabia.
The women came in ninth out of 14 teams for the weekend.
The Riverside Cross Country Invitational was only the second meet for the Leopards this season.
Conference competition will not begin until mid-October, so the team will continue to compete in such invitationals.
“These are not as important, but will get us started,” Widolff said.
The next outing for the Leopards is 9 a.m. for the men and 10 a.m. for the women Saturday at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks where they will face, among other SCIAC opponents, the Regals and the Kingsmen of Cal Lu.
