Andrea Jacobs finished 12th in the individual standings, leading the UC Santa Barbara women’s team to a second-place finish out of 20 schools at the UC Riverside Cross Country Invitational on Saturday morning. The Gaucho men’s team was ninth in a 25-team field.
Running side-by-side with teammate Sarah Vitug, Jacobs ran the 6K Farm Course in 21:09.8. Vitug was 13th in a time of 21:10.0 and not far behind were Ashley Beechan (15th at 21:13.6) and Callie Mulgannon (16th at 21:14.7). Ari Selix finished 18th in 21:14.9 and Christine Cooperstein was 19th at 21:16.3, giving UCSB six of the top 19 finishers.
West Coast Conference power Loyola Marymout won the team title with 65 points, four points better than the Gauchos’ 69. Southern Utah was third with 87 and UC Riverside was a distant fourth with 121 points.
The seventh runner to score in the meet for UCSB was freshman Laura Beresford (Dan Point, Calif./Dana Hills HS) who ran a 21:26.8 and finished 25th. Justine Diaz gave the Gauchos eight of the top-30 finishers as he ran a 21:31.3 to finish in 31st-place.
On the men’s side, freshman Kenneth Raedel (Escondido, Calif./San Pasqual HS) ran the men’s 8K course in 25:00.8 to finish 30th. Rusty Parker was 50th in a time of 25:23.5 and Greg Dotson clocked a 25:25.4 to come in 51st. Bryce Rausa, Doug Whichard and Andrew Pilavjian were 67th, 68th and 71st respectively.
The men’s race was won by Southern Utah who tallied 51 points. The host, UC Riverside, was second with 93 while Cal State San Marcos was third at 144. UCSB had 233 points for its ninth-place finish.
The UCSB women’s and men’s cross country teams return to action on Saturday, Sept. 24 at the prestigious Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.
