Cross Country Opens 2022 Season at Anteater Opener

Thursday, September 1

Irvine, Calif.

6 P.M.

Long Beach State University

Anteater Opener

Photo by: John Fajardo

8/31/2022 9:37:00 AM | Cross Country

For the second consecutive season, the Long Beach State cross country team runs their first meet of the year at UC Irvine.

By: Collin Robinson, Associate Athletics Communications Director

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Long Beach State Cross Country is set to open their 2022 campaign at the Anteater Opener, hosted by UC Irvine, on Thursday afternoon. It is the first of four regular season meets leading up to the conference championship.

Long Beach State at Anteater Opener
Times: Women's 4K at 6:00 p.m. | Men's 6K at 6:30 p.m.
Live Results: https://finishedresults.com/meets/3995

Among the teams competing with Long Beach State and host UC Irvine are fellow Big West foe CSUN, as well as California Baptist and San Diego State.

The Beach returns 12 women from last year's roster, including five of the seven NCAA West Regional finishers. Ryley Fick headlines the group as she enters her senior season after being the top Long Beach finisher at both the Big West Championship and the NCAA West Regional. Anitha Graves and Brieanna Tafoya are also back for the senior seasons after finishing second and third for the Beach at the NCAAs last year.

On the men's side, seven of last year's team are back with three being NCAA West Regional finishers. Michael Phillips will look to build off a 2021 campaign that saw him as the top Beach finisher in all but one meet including an All-Big West performance in the conference championship.

Freshmen standouts Allie Scimia and Alex Kalmar are also returning for their sophomore seasons with the Beach. Scimia was consistently a top two runner for LBSU last year while Kalmar showed improvements as the season progressed before a breakout distance season on the track in the spring.

In total, there are 11 new faces joining the men's and women's teams this year. The class is made up of seven freshmen and four transfers. The most notable of the group are Jay Brown and Quinn Garity. Brown is a sophomore transfer from Florida State and Garity is a sophomore transfer from CSUN.