Westmont’s Jake Jeanson and Kate Stuart each placed fourth in their respective races at the Vanguard Cross Country Invitational on Saturday. Jeanson posted a time of 25:47 in the men’s 8.000 meter race to lead the Warriors to a third place finish among 12 teams. Stuart’s 5,000 meter time of 18:15 helped Westmont achieve a fourth place finish among 14 teams.
“We finished twelve points behind Master’s,” noted Westmont head coach Russell Smelley, “roughly the same place we were a month ago. We have the potential to change that a month from now at the GSAC Championship. That is the goal. It would garner third place and cut into Biola’s lead for second.”
Azusa Pacific won the women’s race with a total of 36 points. The Master’s finished second with 86 points while Loyola Marymount took third with 97 points – one less than the Warriors. Other Golden State Athletic Conference teams included Vanguard in seventh place (176 points), San Diego Christian in tenth place (266 points), Concordia in eleventh place (337 points) and Fresno Pacific in twelfth (349 points).
“Kate Stuart had a very nice performance,” said Smelley. “She looked much better than a week ago after having had a hard week. Everyone else ran steady and we are expecting more of them.”
Danaca Rosendale was the Warriors’ second finisher, taking nineteenth place with a time of 18:58. Angelina Gonzalez placed twenty-fifth with a time of 19:14. Close behind were Amber Collier in twenty-seventh (19:17) and Corinne Cherne in twenty-eighth (19:22).
The Master’s won the men’s race with 46 points followed by California Baptist with 60. Westmont tallied 62 points, considerably ahead of fourth place Orange Coast College which posted 117. Other GSAC teams included Vanguard in fifth with 139 points, Azusa Pacific in seventh with 172 and Fresno Pacific in eighth with 205.
“The men were solid as a team,” said Smelley. “There was a group running as four guys together, which proved to work well as they moved forward. The men are 16 points behind Master’s which I think can be overcome, but it will take an improvement on our part. When you mix Biola in there, it’s quite the donnybrook.
“The Master’s is superior in their top runners. We can break that up by five or six of our runners getting ahead of their number three and four. Biola has a solid team spread of five guys who will be right in the middle of us.”
Matt Day claimed eighth place as the Warriors’ second finisher, completing the course in a time of 26:18. Matt Organista was thirteenth in a time of 26:31 while Nathan Kemp ran a time of 26:43 to finish nineteenth. Evan Bradford completed the scoring for Westmont with a twentieth place finish in 26:45.
The Warriors will next compete at the Biola Invitational, which will be held at Irvine Park in the City of Orange, on Saturday, October 22.
