TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — At this weekend’s NCAA Pre-National Invitational, the Gaucho men took 22nd place in the men’s 8,000 meter White Race, and the Gaucho women took 30th place in the women’s 6,000 meter Blue Race.
The women were led by Danielle Domenichelli, who had a slow start but ended up finishing in the top-30 with a time of 20:58.2. Next came fellow senior Ashley Ramirez, who completed the course in 22:34.3, and sophomore Katie Voigtlander, who finished in 22:47.8.
Completing the scoring were freshman Ashley Beechan (22:56.6) and sophomoreBreanne Strenkowski (23:09.2). The team finished in 30th place with 838 points.
“We’re a little young and inexperienced,” said assistant coach Avery Blackwell. “We didn’t get out hard enough, and were too far back to make an impact.”
The men were led by Scott Smith, who came in 39th place with a time of 24:19.4. He was followed by Julian DeRubira, who crossed the line in 24:42.4.
The other scorers for the men were Andrew Pilavjian (25:26.1), Waleed Totari (25:31.7), and Anthony Masci (25:36.0). The team finished in 22nd place with 634 points.
“22nd place is a little disappointing,” said Blackwell. “Finishing in 10th-15th was the goal, and we thought we could break into that range with a good race. We need more time to mature, and the guys just went out a little too hard in today’s race.”
The No. 1 nationally-ranked Washington Huskies were the winners of the women’s 6,000 meter Blue Race, with all five of their runners scoring in the top 15. They were followed by No. 13 Villanova and unranked Minnesota.
Florida State’s Susan Kuijken took first place in the women’s 6,000 meter White Race with a time of 19:48.2, a new course record. She was the winner of the Blue Race last year.
No. 10 Stanford took the men’s 8,000 meter White Race with 77 team points. Second place went to No. 7 Iona, and third went to No. 18 BYU.
Samuel Chelanga from Liberty was the individual winner, setting a course record with a time of 22:51.3. He broke the record set by his former teammate, 2007 NCAA Champion Josh McDougal, in last season’s White Race.
The Gauchos return to action in two weeks for the Big West Conference Championships. The championships will take place in Riverside, Calif. on Nov. 11.
Gotta say, this is a little overly stated… the teams ran ok. The men ran just as well as they did last year, which wasn’t that good at all, I know full well they have and can do better. The Men’s team has a lot of talent and have yet to run to their full potential. A little more insight into the present team and the past performances would do this article a lot better…