Beach Travels To Sunnyvale For Santa Clara Invitational
10/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 17, 2008
Long Beach - After a three-week layoff, the Long Beach State cross country team gets back into action as they take part in the Santa Clara Invitational on Saturday morning at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale. The men's squad will be looking to defend their title while the women will be looking to improve from their second place finish at last year's meet. The women's 5K is scheduled to start at 9 a.m., while the men's 8K is slated for a 10:30 start. The Santa Clara meet is the largest collegiate cross country meet on the west coast that features 19 NCAA , 3 NAIA and three junior college schools.
"After three strong,uninterrupted weeks of hard training, the athletes are excited to get back to racing and see the progress we've made," said distance coach Patrick Cunniff. "The Santa Clara meet is a perfect set up leading into the conference meet at Riverside. The course is fast and the competition should be excellent. This also the first race we will go into a little bit rested and with a bit of speed work under our belts."
For the women's team, the 49ers will be led by seniors Sarah Apgar, Kristina Wilson and Carly Harris. Apgar crossed the finish line in second place at last year's meet, while recording her personal best of 17:21. Harris came in seventh with a mark of 17:41, while Wilson crossed the finish the line in 30th. Both runners recorded pesonal bests at last year's meet.
"On the women's side we have great senior leadership and Sarah Apgar, Kristina Wilson and Carly Harris should set the pace again," said Cunniff. "The big key for the women, in this race and as we move on to championship season, is the development of our younger runners, particularly three freshmen, Stacey Flores, Alisia Barajas and Jessica Barnard."
On the men's side, The Beach will be lead by junior Jacob Ainsworth and a group of sophomors of Travis Kuhlmann, Josh Arrieta, Josh Ruff and Mark Thomas. All five runners ran personal bests at last year's race. Kuhlman came in as the second best runner for the 49ers as he finished in 14th with a time of 25:13, while Ruff placed 36th with a mark of 25:38.
"For the men, we're looking to see who is ready to step up," said Cunniff. "We have a very young but talented group and it is time for them to start running at a high level. Travis Kuhlman is emerging as a team leader and should be ready to run strong after debuting at Stanford. After Travis, every one of our guys is capable of having a big race. Hopefully they will work together, feed off each other's energy and break through as a group. It should be a great meet and a great way to gage where we are heading into our big meets at the end of the year."
Players Mentioned
