Report by LBSU
The Long Beach State men’s and women’s cross country teams travel up to Northern California as they take part in the 36th edition of the Stanford Invitational this Saturday at the Stanford Golf Course. The 49ers will be among approximately 40 teams competing in one of the top college races this season. The men’s 8,000-meter race is scheduled to start at 10:50 a.m., while the women’s 6,000-meter race will begin at 11:30 a.m.
The 49ers are coming off from another strong performance as both men’s and women’s teams finished in third place at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego last weekend. Sophomore Liz Ramos led The Beach in the women’s 5,000-meter race as she finished in second place (18:32) and improved her time by 13 seconds. Ramos finished just 21 seconds behind Veronica Pohl of Northern Arizona who finished in 16th at last year’s NCAA Cross Country Championship. Ramos beat several women who were regional qualifiers in track last year and all but one member of the NAU team is Mountain Region No. 1 and national top 20. Sophomore Raul Arcos led the men’s team as he came in seventh overall in 26:19 and was very competitive with members of the NAU squad that is ranked in the top 10 nationally. Arcos improved his performance from last year’s race by 40 seconds.
Last year in Palo Alto, the men’s team finished in ninth (out of 28 teams) with 287 points. Junior Travis Kuhlman led The Beach as finished in 38th with a time of 25:41. Arcos followed close behind with a time of 25:57 (52nd) and Junior Josh Ruff at 25:59 (54th).
On the women’s side, the 49ers finished in 11th (out of 33 teams) with 324 points. Sarah Apgar was the top runner for LBSU as she finished in 17th (21:52), followed by Kristina Wilson in 39th (22:31). Senior Missy Barclay and sophomore Alisia Barajas hope to improve their performance from last year’s race as both runners finished in 69th and 139th respectively.
“I was really happy with the runners that put effort into this past weekend in San Diego,” said distance coach Patrick Cunniff. “It’s a solid step forward we took as a team, especially for this weekend at Stanford. I was really impressed on how Liz (Ramos), Anne (Randall) and Hillary (Zator) are running and (Steven) DeCastro and (Raul) Arcos look very strong. I’m very excited to get our runners back for the Stanford race, especially Missy Barlcay, who’ll add a lot of leadership for our women’s squad!”