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sports
Beach hosts cross-country
invitational
By Alisha Gomez
On-line Forty-Niner
After a short rest
from Stanford's Invitational, Long Beach State held its own
invitational Saturday, where the men's cross-country team
took first overall, and the women's team placed third behind
first place team USC and second place Cal Coast.
Johann Appell, a
runner for Long Beach Alumni, took first overall for the men's
race, finishing the 8K race in 25:48.50. LBSU freshman Arturo
Garcia took second, clocking in at 26:09.10. Angel Roman from
Runner's High finished third with 26:26.40.
Lisa Rotsel from
USC took first overall in the women's competition with a time
of 18:20 for the 5K race. Jacinda Raiche from Pacific West
Track Club took second with 18:29 and Brenda Williams from
Cal Coast placed third with a time of 18:35.80.
LBSU's first runner
to place was Christine Appell from Long Beach Alumni, finishing
with a time of 18:41.20. Beach sophomore Drea Palacio placed
sixth overall with a time of 18:41.80.
For Garcia, his
time marked the fourth-fastest time in LBSU cross-country
history.
"This was my
third race [of the season] and I had to just go out and test
myself," Garcia said.
Garcia said he tried
to get the team to step up by running the way he did.
"I want to
see us be a national team," he said.
Assistant coach
Dana Colligan Gutierrez said that the difference between Garcia's
performance last week at Stanford and Saturday was the type
of race each was.
"Last week
was extremely competitive with a huge crowd," Gutierrez
said. "This meet, because it was smaller, gave him the
opportunity to work on head-to-head competing and working
as a front runner."
Gutierrez said it
is very difficult for a freshman to go to an invitational
like Stanford -- a second collegiate race which includes people
from all over the country -- to practice his skills as a front
runner. She said that Saturday was a good race for him to
do that.
First-place runner
Appell said that he just tried to stay relaxed as long as
possible. Appell said he is really a track runner and usually
sits and waits on his kick. He also said he felt pretty good
after Saturday's invite as opposed to Stanford's.
"At Stanford,
I just didn't feel good," Appell said. "I ran less
hard today than I did at Stanford. I'm also getting off an
injury and I am still trying to snap back into my rhythm."
Appell ran for LBSU's
cross country team back in 1998 and '99.
Palacio was excited
with her performance and felt a huge difference between the
Stanford and Long Beach invitationals.
"The consistency
was the same, and I thought that I pushed harder because of
the type of competitors so I was able to maneuver myself around
them," Palacio said. "Having my teammates visible
and people I recognized helped me."
Palacio said the
Long Beach competition was different and stated there were
good individuals, but not teams.
Gutierrez said that
Palacio had a fantastic race.
"She set a
[personal record] for herself," Gutierrez said. "She's
very focused, very determined and showed a lot of toughness
and race savvy."
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Alisha
Gomez/On-line Forty-Niner
Runners
from several teams competed at the Long Beach Invitational
Saturday at El Dorado Park.
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