MORAGA, Calif. – Cross country athletes Rayna Stanziano and Lucas Chung earned Saint Mary's Co-Student-Athletes of the Week after qualifying for the Pan Am Cross Country Championships. No Gael had ever qualified for the race before Chung and Stanziano and they were both the first Gaels to attempt the qualifying race since 2016.  

History was made on Saturday as freshman cross country runners Stanziano and Chung qualified for the 2020 Pan Am Cross Country Championships. Running in the U20 USATF Cross Country National Championships in Mission Bay, both needed to finish inside the top-six in order to represent the United States at the end of February. Stanziano was able to finish second place outright, while Chung finished eighth, but qualified regardless.
 
Stanziano was nearly in a class of her own during the race, finishing her 6k run in 22:47.6, good for a second-place finish overall. The second-place finish for the freshman out of Concord is her best finish of her young collegiate career. Chung remained steadily in the eighth place position, but given that two runners who finished above him will not be competing, this bumps Chung up into the "top-six". His time of 27:29.6 placed him in good standing as he will be advancing to the Pan Am Cross Country Championships as well.
 
The 2020 Pan Am Cross Country Championships will take place on Saturday, February 29 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Stanziano and the women will compete at 10:00 a.m., while Chung and the men will go at 10:40 a.m. immediately after.