LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The UC San Diego cross country teams kicked off the 2008 season on the right foot, with both the men and women posting victories in Friday's meet at the Triton Cross Country Course. The men had six of the top 10 finishers to defeat Point Loma Nazarene and the University of San Diego, while the women recorded three of the top nine times, including the top overall finisher, to best the Sea Wolves, Toreros, and Rebels of UNLV.
Paving the way for the men's 22-point victory was junior Jesse Morrill, who finished second overall behind PLNU's Landon Bright with a time of 21:51.9, and senior Jake LeVieux, who crossed the finish line fourth overall with a mark of 22:09.6. Daniel Anderson and Gabe LaMothe were the next two fastest UCSD runners, finishing in fifth and sixth with times of 22:32.6 and 22:55.0, respectively. Kevin Klein rounded out the scoring for the Tritons, placing eighth overall with his mark of 23:13.8.
“We had some really tremendous performances today,” second-year head coach Nate Garcia said. “We got strong runs from Jesse Morrill and Jake LaVieux, and even though they didn't come out on top, they hung tough the whole way and that will definitely pay off down the line.”
Bright broke the tape in the four-mile race with a time of 21:42.0. PLNU finished second on the day, 14 points in front of USD.
Rookie Bre Schofield was the story on the women's side, crossing the finish line with a time of 15:17.4 to win her first ever cross country meet. The Carlsbad, Calif. native is entering her second year at UCSD and competed in track and field distance events for the Tritons last spring but Friday marked the first cross country event of her collegiate career. Schofield finished a full 22 seconds ahead of the second place runner, UNLV's Jenni Shearer, who clocked in at 15:39.6.
“We wanted Bre to stick with the pack until she knew she could win it and that's what she did,” Garcia said. “She really gave us a big boost out here today and it was great for her to get the win. Overall, we looked really good as a team.”
The next two UCSD runners to finish the race were seniors Ashleigh Montgomery and Jessica DiMascio, capturing fourth and ninth place, respectively with times of 15:46.0 and 16:08.5. Freshman Elena Inouye finished 11th at 16:14.1, while sophomore Kim Andrews posted a time of 16:22.9, to take 14th place in the 2.5 mile race.
Led by Janessa Roses' third place finish at 15:44.3, the Toreros had three of the top 10 times to finish second, 12 points behind the Tritons. The Rebels followed in third and the Sea Wolves finished in fourth.
Both the Triton men and women will return to action in two weeks with the Aztec Invitational on Saturday, September 13, just down the freeway on the campus of San Diego State. UCSD was slated to take part in the UC Irvine Invitational next weekend but the coaching staff elected to drop the meet from their schedule.
