Dos Pueblos’ Sergey Sushchikh kept his stellar cross country season alive on Saturday, qualifying for the Foot Locker National Championships by finishing 10th at the Western Regional at Mt. SAC.
Sushchikh recorded a time of 15 minutes and 54 seconds on the 5k course.
Six of the top-10 came from California, although race winner Billy Orman (15:28) is from Tuba City, Arizona.
“I think his choice to keep competing after an already long season really speaks to his character as an athlete, as he is taking advantage of every opportunity he has to compete,” said Chargers coach Leslie Roth of her senior. “We are really proud of him and find his will to compete inspirational – he is going where no other athlete has gone in the history of our program.”
Other local runners that competed on Saturday included Santa Barbara’s Briggs Deardorff and Sushchikh’s Dos Pueblos teammates Maxwell Davis and Bryan Fernandez. Deardorff recorded a top-100 result in 97th and Fernandez was 128th overall but 13th amongst freshmen and sophomores.
Sushchikh advances to the national championships in San Diego next Saturday.
