10/04/19 – Sophia Cortina and Drake Nienow led their teams to a 4th place team finish at the Western State Conference Preview meet by winning their respective races.

Cortina didn't waste any time. She quickly ran out in front of the entire field and created a 20-meter lead within the first quarter mile. As the 3.1 mile race progressed, so too did her lead. She easily finished 1st and ran a personal best time of 17:52, 41 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.

Sophomore Adriana Perez has been consistently the number two runner for the Raiders this season. Perez had a season PR with her 19th place finish in a time of 20:58. The biggest improvement for the Raiders today came from freshman Elizabeth Hsu. Hsu ran side-by-side with her teammates (Perez and De Los Santos) and had a stronger finish. Hsu finished 22nd in a time of 21:07, a season PR by 38 seconds. Estefania De Los Santos (21:48) and Kimia Karaminejad Ranjbar (24:16) placed 29th and 49th respectively.

The men's race started differently. A front pack of approximately 25 men formed quickly and the Raiders settled behind the lead group. However, after mile one, Drake Nienow decided he had enough and pushed his way through the front runners. Nienow led the rest of the race and maintained his lead until the finish. Nienow finished the 4 mile race in 20:04, 5 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor and over 2 minutes faster than his previous 4 mile PR.

Sophomore Andrew Teasdale had an amazing race. Teasdale ran with Nienow for most of the race. However, he fell back a little bit when Nienow made his move to the front. It didn't take him long to realize he had it in himself to stay with the top pack. By the time his race finished, Teasdale took 3rd in a time of 20:13, a season PR by almost 2 minutes. Robby Riggs and Connor Ahl were 3rd and 4th for the Raiders. Riggs (21:38) had a season PR by almost one minute while Ahl completed the race in a time of 23:10, nearly a 2 minute PR. Fifth for the Raiders was Ronnie Reyes (27:52) who ran a minute faster today and placed 76th.

Both teams placed 4th. Next week the Raiders will be at Home. Women race at 10:00am and the men race at 11:00am.'