With two of its top runners not competing due to injuries, the men’s cross country team finished 7th out of 13 colleges in the Irvine Invitational at Irvine Regional Park Saturday.
The two runners out for the season are Kendall Lopez, who suffered a stress fracture and Alex Diaz, who did not compete at Irvine Invititational due to a sore arch.
“We needed both of them,” Javier Figueroa said. “Kendall and Diaz are great help; they give us motivation.”
The next competition for the Warriors will be tomorrow at Mt. SAC in the Mt. SAC Invitational.
The teams the Warriors went up against at Irvine included: San Bernardino, Mt. SAC, Santa Ana and Long Beach.
“The guys ran a bit better as a team than the last meet,” coach Dean Lofgren said.
Coming in first at the Irvine Intivitational was San Bernardino; second Santa Canyon; third Mt. SAC; fourth Santa Ana and fifth Southwestern.
“We were slightly ahead of our conference foe Long Beach rather than behind them,” he said.
Working and going to bed late hindered top runner Sal Bautista’s ability to run his best in the competition.
“I did so-so; I was tired and I didn’t get enough sleep,” Bautista said. “I was with the front pack but during the second mile, the (pace became) faster and I couldn’t catch up.”
Though tired, Bautista finished first on the team with the time 21:34, 12th overall. Behind him was Figueroa with the time 22:15, 26th overall.
“The second and third mile of the course was hard. I got past three people, but I couldn’t handle my pace at the end,” Bautista said. “I know I could do better.”
Figueroa, coming back from a strained quad, said he felt good to be back in competition.
“My quad was bugging me a little bit a couple days before, but during the competition it felt fine,” Figueroa said.
Following the top two runners were David Olivares, who placed 47th overall with the time 23:21; Jesse Brosius and Emiliano Nash who both came in with a time of 23:48, finishing 54th and 55th respectively.
“Bautista ran well in good company up in 12th and Javier (Figueroa) ran well after taking the last meet off,” Lofgren said. “He needs more experience and will get it in the next two meets.”
The Warriors will expect intense competition because Mt. SAC will not only be their next invitational but it will also host the Southern California Championship, Nov 8.
“We will expect virtually every college in Southern California to be there because it will be the same site as the Southern Californian Championships.” Lofgren said.
