Report by LBSU
The Long Beach State men’s and women’s cross country teams travel to Northern California for the Bronco Invitational hosted by Santa Clara University. Both teams will be looking to defend their titles from last year. The women’s 5K race is scheduled for 9:45 a.m., while the men’s 8K will begin at 11:15 a.m. this Saturday. Both races will take place at the Baylands Park in Sunnyvale. The Bronco Invitational is considered the largest cross country meet west of the Mississippi River that features more than 630 runners in four races.
“We are excited to be back in action,” said distance coach Patrick Cunniff. “Since Stanford, we have been training hard with a focus on conference and regionals. Santa Clara gives us an awesome opportunity to see how we are progressing and to race against great competition. We are defending champs in both races, so it gets our competitive juices flowing to go out and defend our titles.”
The 49er women will be led by senior Missy Barclay as she looks to improve her performance from last year’s 18th place finish (17:56). Sophomores Alisia Barajas and Jessica Barnard will be participating in their second Bronco Invitational as Barajas crossed the finish line in 94th (19:28) and Barnard finished in 45th (18:31). The trio of veterans will be also joined by junior Jennifer Rodriguez, sophomore Liz Ramos and freshmen Prism Garcia, Anne Randall and Hillary Zator that have all shown strong performances in recent races.
“Missy Barclay has been training very well since we made the decision to run this year and I expect her and Jennifer Rodriguez to move forward competitively and provide great leadership to our younger girls,” added Cunniff. “Annie Randall and Alisia Barajas are training at a high level and I am excited to see them race.”
On the men’s side, The Beach will be led by a group of veteran runners that looks to make a strong impact in this year’s race. Seniors Jacob Ainsworth and Dylan Jaedtke will make a return appearance in Sunnyvale after redshirting last season. Sophomores Matt Maldonado and Raul Arcos and junior Travis Kuhlman finished in the top 20 last year. Juniors Mark Thomas, Steven DeCastro and Josh Ruff will all be looking to improve their performances from last season’s race as all three runners crossed the finish line in 26th, 31st and 67th places respectively.
“For the men’s team is almost hard to single people out because they are such a solid group,” said Cunniff. “We have six guys that could finish in any order on any given day, and four more guys nipping at their heels who are all capable of running with the front group on the right day. Josh Ruff comes off an outstanding race at Stanford and has really set the tone for our entire team with his combination of work ethic and race toughness. Dylan Jaedtke and Steven DeCastro are super solid in everything they do and our `speed’ based guys like Matt Maldonado, Travis Kuhlman and Raul Arcos are really looking good with the three weeks of faster training since Stanford.”
The women’s race will feature teams from Black Hills State, Boise State, California, Fresno State, Hawaii-Manoa, Nevada, New Mexico State, Pepperdine, Sacramento State, San Francisco, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Stanford, UC Davis, San Diego and UNLV. The men’s race will feature teams from Black Hills State, Boise State, California, Fresno State, Hartnell College, New Mexico State, Pepperdine, Sacramento State, Saint Mary’s, San Diego Mesa College, San Francisco, San Jose State, host Santa Clara, Stanford, UC Davis and San Diego.
“This is our last chance to test our fitness and practice our race plans before championship season,” said Cunniff. “Both teams have been working very hard, and I think we are all very eager to race and take that next step to get ready for our big races, the Big West and NCAA West Regional Championships.”