Galo Pesantes, Sports Editor
Andres Rivera, Web Editor

The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships in La Mirada last Saturday.

Several ULV runners for the men and women’s team placed in the conference competition which featured many of the the top athletes from Redlands, Pomona-Pitzer, Whittier and Occidental.

On the La Verne side, junior Jasper Chang was the top runner on the men’s side achieving 22nd with a time of 28:04.16 in the 8,000-meter run.

“It was tough,” Chang said. “I think I did poorly compared to what I could have done.”

Freshman Lance Powell came in 63rd with a time of 30:59.37 closely followed by sophomore Quentin Haggard in 64th at 31:07.13.

Senior John Skelton placed 71st in the run with a time of 33:02.33.

Occidental won the race on the men’s side with a total of 27 points and having four out of seven runners placing in the top 10.

“We are doing pretty good as a team but we still don’t have the fifth guy to score,” Powell said.

“We are trying to get all five of us ready to compete in Regionals now.”

Sophomore Amanda Seibert lead the women’s team by placing 22nd in the run with a time of 24:13.51.

“Personally I was really proud of my performance,” Seibert said. “I improved on my place and time since my last competition so I can’t complain.”

Coming in 26th, sophomore Jackie Steele clocked-in at 24:46.58 followed by sophomore Mallorie Munoz who came in 37th place with a time of 25:29.44.

Senior Amanda Santos came in 66th with a time of 28:18.28.

Alicia Freese from Pomona-Pitzer ended up taking first place at 22:18.86.

Occidental also scored the women’s crown, winning the race with 43 points ahead of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Redlands and having four out of seven runners placing in the top 10 as in the men’s team.

Next up for the La Verne cross country teams will be the NCAA Division III West Regional meet on Nov. 10 in Estacada, Ore.

The event will be hosted by Lewis and Clark College and will be held at McIver Park.

“We’ve never raced this course in Oregon before. I just want to go and run competitively,” Seibert said. “Usually when you race teams in the conference, you want to place high and not worry so much about your time.”

“Basically we are all trying to run out there and run as hard as possible,” Powell said. “We are just hoping to improve our times and run as hard as we can to do that.”

La Verne runners will be able to qualify for the NCAA championships based on their times and performances at the West Regional.

Galo Pesantes can be reached at gpesantes@ulv.edu.
Andres Rivera can be reached at arivera3@ulv.edu.