MC CROSS COUNTRY RACES VALIANTLY IN MASTER’S INVITATIONAL
When the Raiders arrived at Central Park in Santa Clarita the sky was pitch black. While walking the course, several athletes commented: "It feels like we are camping," as they used the flashlights on their phones to light the way.
The sun crested the mountain, the men's 8k (5 mile) race started. Approximately 150 meters after the start, the field of 255 men took a sharp right turn and sophomore Andrew Teasdale found himself in the top 30, running with athletes from universities such as UCLA, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Westmont and Lewis & Clark. After the first mile, Teasdale dropped back a little and ended up placing 72nd in a time of 26:51.
Freshman Drake Nienow knew going into this race that the 5 miles course wasn't to be taken lightly. In high school the gentlemen race 3 miles, at the JC level their race is 4 miles, this race was another 25% jump. Nienow started a little bit conservative and was in the top 50-60 going into mile 1. He stayed strong and gradually moved himself up and finished in a time of 26:01 and placed 33rd. Connor Ahl had a big improvement in his race today and finished 233rd in a time of 30:14.
As the women's race was about to start a chill in the air settled on the 303 runners, but that didn't slow down the Lady Raiders. Sophia Cortina, placed herself in the top 30 for the first mile. But it didn't take her long to move up. Cortina placed 8th in a time of 18:08, over a minute faster than her best time this season. Cortina said: "it was nice to have someone to run against going into he finish."
Sophomore Adriana Perez also shaved nearly one minute off her best season time by placing 183rd in a time of 21:01. Close behind were teammates Estefania De Los Santos (21;32) and Elizabeth Hsu (21:45), both of whom improved their 5K times by more than one minute. The Lady Raiders placed 23rd in a field of 40 schools.
Next week the Raiders will compete at Legg Lake in El Monte on Friday, October 4th for the WSC Preview Races.