LA JOLLA, Calif. ? After an impressive showing at the Slippery Rock Pre-National Invitational last weekend, the UC San Diego men's and women's cross country teams will host their annual UCSD Triton Classic this Saturday at the Triton Cross Country Course. The 10k men's race will begin at 8:45 a.m. and the 6k women's event is scheduled to follow at 10:15 a.m. Both races will start on the North Campus Athletic Fields and finish on the Triton Track.
Saturday's event will feature a field of teams from the Division I, II, and III levels. The list of participating schools includes CCAA members Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State San Bernardino, and Cal State Stanislaus, as well as Central Arizona, Grand Canyon, Grossmont College, Notre Dame de Namur, Polomar College, San Diego State, Ted de Monterrey, UC Irvine, and the University of San Diego. Seattle Pacific University will enter two men and two women who will be competing individually.
Ranked No. 19 in the current USTFCCCA Division II poll, the Triton men enter Saturday's competition having won three of the team's four events this season. UCSD took home the team title at Cooper's Lake Campground in Slippery Rock, Pa. last weekend, running extremely well on the course that will serve as the site of the NCAA Division II Championships in November. Senior
Jake LeVieux paced the Tritons for the third consecutive race and finished fourth overall, two seconds ahead of teammate
Jesse Morrill.
Gabe LaMothe took eighth in the 8,000-meter event, while
Greg Geldman finished 15th and
Kevin Klein placed 20th to round out the scoring for the Tritons.
UCSD's men finished second overall at the Triton Classic last season, with
Daniel Anderson leading the way with a seventh place finish after crossing the finish line with a time of 33:50.5. Klein uncorked a big 10th place run in the event as well, finishing in a time of 33:58.5, while Morrill finished 13th overall at 34:06.1.
Timur Crone and
Mike Wright were the next two Triton runners to finish, placing 25th and 26th overall with their times of 34:45.4 and 34:46.8, respectively.
The 20th-ranked Triton women have also been impressive in 2008 and enter Saturday's race on the heels of a fourth place finish at the SRU Pre-National Invitational. Freshman
Bre Schofield was UCSD's top individual finisher once again, taking seventh overall, with
Ashleigh Montgomery,
Elena Inouye, and
Jessica DiMascio finishing 11th, 27th, and 42nd behind her, respectively.
Kim Andrews capped the scoring for the Tritons with a 48th-place finish in the 6,000-meter course.
UCSD finished 5th in the Triton Classic a year ago, with
Emily McGregor and
Diane Dunn paving the way with 8th and 15th place finishes, respectively. McGregor's time of 22:53.2 was just over 24 seconds faster than Dunn, who posted a time of 23:17.6. Montgomery finished 25th overall in last year's event, crossing the finish line with a time of 23:51.7.
Jordana Henderson finished the race with a mark of 24:09.6 and placed 32nd, while
Dana Underwood finished 35th overall at 24:16.9.
The Triton harriers fared well on their home course earlier this season, sweeping a meet with Point Loma Nazarene, USD, and UNLV on August 29. Saturday marks UCSD's last competition of the regular season before the upcoming CCAA Championships, which are scheduled for Saturday October 25 in San Bernardino, Calif.
