For the first time since 2006, the Westmont men and women’s cross country teams swept the Westmont Invitational on Saturday morning. As a result of construction of a new Track and Field/Soccer complex on the Westmont campus, the course was significantly altered from previous runnings of the Westmont Invitational, offering more of a vertical challenge to this year’s participants.
“It was a challenging course,” noted Westmont head coach Russell Smelley, “I’d say it was a hard, tough course because we had to add in going all the way up to upper campus for the first time in 25 years.”
The Westmont Invitational features not only four-year colleges, but running clubs and community college teams. Westmont men finished in first place with 48 points while Inside Track took second with 73 points. Notre Dame De Namur claimed third place with 88 points and the University of La Verne placed fourth with 101 points.
WOMEN’S PHOTO GALLERY, MEN’S PHOTO GALLERY
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Josh Spiker of Inside Track finished first in the men’s 8,000 meter race in a time of 25:05, nearly a minute ahead of teammate and second place finisher Bobby Olivera (26:03). The first collegiate runners across the line were Westmont runners Jake Jeanson (26:22) and Nathan Kemp (26:25) who finished in third and fourth respectively. Unattached runner Jay Sorensen finished fifth place in 26:29 while Santa Barbara City College’s Mark Moreno took sixth place in a time of 26:30.
“Jake and Nathan have been training well together and were three second apart at the finish,” noted Smelley. “That is excellent news. Matt Day, our other freshman, ran a fantastic race within a minute of them. If we have our upper classmen fill in the gap, we will have a very competitive team.”
Westmont’s women tallied 35 points to capture first place ahead of Santa Barbara Athletic Association which claimed second place with 41 points. Cal State East Bay finished third with 64 points and Santa Barbara City College took fourth place with 87.
Two Santa Barbara Athletic Association runners claimed the top two spots with Andrea McLarty finishing first in 18:13 and Michelle McToldridge placing second in a time of 19:34. Westmont claimed the next three places. Chrissa Trudelle took third in a time of 19:54, Kate Stuart crossed the line in fourth in a time of 19:57 and Danica Rosendale claimed fifth in a time of 20:06. Santa Barbara City College’s Seanie Rigney finished sixth with a time of 20:26 followed by Westmont’s Caitlyn Corrao who finished in seventh with a time of 20:31.
“I was delighted with the women’s performance,” said Smelley. “Our first four are very close, just 37 second apart. I know that Katie Fritzke and Sarah Haydock and others can get up there and tighten it up to a minute (for the top five).”
Fritzke and Haydock finished seventeenth and eighteenth with times of 21:10 and 21:23 respectively.
Smelley was pleased with the improvement he saw in both his teams since their season opening race.
“Two weeks ago, both the men and women ran but did not compete,” said the coach. “Today, they took the challenge and they competed, which changed everything.”
The Warriors next chance to compete will be one week from today.
“Next week we are at Bakersfield which will be the exact opposite from this course – absolutely flat. There will also be three Division I schools so that will give us a test to run to the front.”
