XC | Gaels Execute Race Plan To Impress At The Riverside Invite

Saturday, September 18

Riverside, CA

TBA

Saint Mary's College of California

UC Riverside Invite

XC | Gaels Execute Race Plan To Impress At The Riverside Invite

9/18/2021 10:28:00 AM | Cross Country

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Gaels cross country teams impressed on Saturday morning with a ninth and a fourth place overall in the women's 6k and men's 8k races at the UC Riverside invitational. There were top ten finishes for Saint Mary's in both events, with over 150 runners in each race.

PERFECT RACE PLAN
An unfamiliar track posed no threat to the Gaels women's team who finished ninth out of 22 teams racing at the UCR Agricultural Operations course with a combined time of 1:48:25. The Gaels edged out Arizona State while having a combined time just 20 seconds behind University of Southern California. Sophomore Rayna Stanziano led the way for Saint Mary's clocking a time of 20:38.1 to cross the line 8th out of 170 runners. Freshman Sylvia Ingram and Molly Dreher also posted top-50 times, finishing 37th and 48th respectively.

"The women executed a phenomenal race plan. None of them had been at the course before, so it is easy to get caught up going too fast. But they were patient and consistently moved up throughout the race, passing about 150 runners from the first mile to the finish. I believe it is the first time we have beat Arizona State in an invitational, so that is pretty exciting too. The entire crew did a very good job and set us up for some good momentum moving forward." - head coach, Marty Kinsey.

KEEPING THE MOMENTUM
The men's side backed up an impressive race from the women with a fourth place overall out of 24 competing teams. They clocked a combined time of 2:03:09, less than three minutes behind the winners, Cal Baptist. Nolan Dozier crossed the line first for the Gaels, in sixth place out of 187 runners in a time of 24:05.07. He was closely followed by fellow seniors Moses Bojorquez in 12th and Chandler Maciel in 23rd.

"The men continued to impress and beat Pepperdine for the first time in about three years. No one led the way one again, and Moses has a huge race leading Pepperdine's top runner by a tenth of a second. Just as the women, the men are building good momentum as the season starts to head to the midway point. Coach Harlan Lopez has done a phenomenal job with the men." - head coach, Marty Kinsey.

NEXT UP
The Gaels will look to keep the momentum going on Friday October 1st at the Pacific Invite in Stockton.

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