Westmont men’s and women’s cross country athletes had a rough start to the day as they traveled south for the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on Saturday. The Warriors were scheduled to leave campus at 4:15 a.m. However, the bus that was scheduled to pick them up broke down on its way up the Montecito foothills.
”We had to send the men on in their own cars,” reported Westmont head coach Russell Smelley. “It was a little bit helter-skelter.”
The women, along with Smelley, waited for a replacement bus which eventually departed at 5:30 a.m.
“When we arrived, the men were through the first mile and the women’s only had 40 minutes to warm up,” said Smelley.
“It was a good strong race for the men,” said Smelley. “Kyle Fredrickson, a freshman, finished first for us (41st overall, 26:29), followed by Evan Kramer (45th place) two seconds behind him. Then Daniel Erickson (84th place, 27:22) was third.
“Tom Hamlin (89th place, 27:24), a freshman from Florida, was fourth and Tyler Bradford (99th place, 27:34) was fifth. We had four freshmen in our top six.”
The men took ninth place out of 16 teams. Vanguard was the top GSAC finisher, taking sixth place. The Master’s claimed eighth place.
The Westmont women were fifth, one place and 20 points behind The Master’s who finished fourth. Vanguard’s women’s team finished 13th.
“Kelly Collins (22:16) finished fourth overall and ran 14 seconds better than a year ago,” said Smelley of the sophomore. Corrine Cherne (22:40) was 10th overall and she was 17 seconds better than her previous best time on this course.”
Emily Williams finished third for the Warriors, claiming 30th place in a time of 23:27.
“The women had a respectable performance, but my expectations are higher,” said Smelley. “I was pleased with the first three runners, but after that we need to close it up.”
