Heat
bothers runners at home meet
Cross
Country: Despite weather, 49ers' men's team
wins event and women's team finishes fifth.
By
Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
The
cross-country team hosted the Long Beach
State Invitational last
Saturday at El Dorado Park East.
The
men's team won the event with Terrance Wroblewski
finishing top among college participants
with a time of 25:37 minutes.
Times
were slower because of the hot weather during
the meet but head coach Geoff Masanet was
happy with his teams' performance.
"We
basically did what we wanted to do,"
Masanet said. "We ran conservative,
as opposed to going out really hard and
then dying."
Masanet
was also encouraged by the men's team beating
Big West Conference opponent Cal State Fullerton.
LBSU cross country has not finished in the
top four of the conference in 15 years and
beating Fullerton the fourth best team in
the conference gives Masanet
encouragement that this years team may break
the 15 year slump.
Finishing
well in the upcoming
conference tournament would be a boon for
the program because the Big West is as Masanet
described it a national
caliber conference, with Cal Poly San Luis
Obispo ranked No. 16 and UC Santa Barbara
and Utah State on the cusp of national ranking.
The
women's team finished in the middle of the
pack at the home meet,
but Masanet said that is not a good
indicator of the skill of the team. The
women had to run later in the morning when
it was hotter and was missing two of its
top five runners due to nagging injuries.
The
San Diego State women's team won the meet.
Junior Jennifer Yadon
finished 13th which was best for the 49ers
on the day.
The
Beach will run again Nov. 1 at the Big West
Conference Championships.
"We
haven't come anywhere near our best race,"
Masanet said.
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