Amanda Moreno and Breanne Strenkowski each finished among the top-30 out of nearly 180 runners to help the UCSB women’s cross country team to a fifth-place finish at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday. The Gaucho men’s team finished 17th.
Moreno ran a 17:46.6 to finish 27th in the 5K race. Strenkowski clocked a 17:49.1 to come in 30th. Crystal Reed ran a 17:49.3 to finish just behind her teammate in 31st-place. In all, seven UCSB runners placed among the top-50 and all ran 18:06.7 or faster.
WOMEN’S RESULTS ** MEN’S RESULTS
The Gauchos finished with 165 points, one spot back of the host Highlanders who had 132 points. Arkansas won the race with 30 points while second-place Southern Utah had 105 and third-place Loyola Marymount recorded 113. LMU’s Tara Erdmann won the individual championship in a time of 16:45.4. Arkansas runners placed second and third.
On the men’s side, Juan Paredes was UCSB’s top finisher as he placed 113th out of 322 competitors in the 8K race. Paredes ran 26:13.8. Jeremy Acosta was 115th, while Doug Whichard, Anthony Masci and Tyler Brady were 121st, 122nd and 123rd respectively.
