Finishing 38 out of 365 runners is a great accomplishment for anyone considering how many people were in the race. But for sophomore runner Alex Gorney, who always has high expectations, finishing number 38 is a very big disappointment.

The men’s cross country team finished fourth at the Southern California Preview on Saturday at Bakersfield. Coming in first place was Orange Coast, followed by American River and Mt. San Antonio. In their last two races the Warriors have finished fifth and fourth respectively, which is a great feat for any team. But Gorney said the team could have been a lot better.

“In the last two races, individually I’ve been on a major slump; as a team, we need to run a little bit harder,” Gorney said.

Gorney said that part of the reason the men have not been doing well is some of their runners are injured. Freshman runner Patrick O’Rourke is injured with a high ankle sprain, which will definitely affect the team.

“(O’Rourke) is a big part of what we do, he’s one of our top seven runners,” Gorney said.

With the men’s team being banged up, they haven’t had a chance to be at full strength for their races. With O’Rourke being injured, Noah Lopez made his season debut for the Warriors. Along with Gorney, Lopez was also disappointed in himself for finishing low in the race.

“(Lopez) was upset that he didn’t do his best, but we told him not to get mad because it was his first race,” Gorney said.

EC’s top runner, Steven Calise, finished sixth with a time of 20:45. Calise had a chance to finish first, but ran out of gas at the end.

“He was in first place for a pretty good amount of time during the race along with the rest of the pack, but he didn’t have enough legs under him to finish,” assistant coach Sean Sheil said. “But I told (Calise) that he ran one heck of a race and he shouldn’t beat himself up for it.”

Sheil said he believes that despite of their fourth place finish, he thinks that the men are a top ten team.

“Oh no doubt, I think we are a top ten team once we get everyone back,” Sheil said.

Sheil is satisfied with how the team has done so far because other schools have great runners and that it is a competitive year.

“This season has been a great challenge not only for us but other schools as well, because the league is stacked with great runners,” Sheil said.

The men have been going hard in practice the last two weeks. They will not compete in any of the races this week due to the fact that some of the runners are injured and might be fatigued at this point.

“We have been going really hard the last two weeks for practice, so were not going to compete this weekend,” coach Dean Lofgren said.

Some of the reasons the runners are fatigued and injured is because of the amount of running that they do during the week. But Gorney said that with the rest they will have, and the time they have to practice, he thinks they will be OK.

“We should be better,” Gorney said. “Once we have all of our runners at full strength with (O’Rourke) coming back and (Lopez) finding his groove, we should be good enough to compete with the top teams,” Gorney said.

Although they finished fourth on Saturday, Sheil said he thinks that things are looking good for the Warriors.

“With some of our guys being banged up and some of our guys not having their best race, to finish fourth is pretty satisfying,” Sheil said. “We know next time we will be better,” he added.

Since the team is not yet at full strength, sophomore runner Aaron Brown said that some of the other runners will have to step it up.

“(Calise) can’t be the only one doing well because this is a team sport,” Brown said. “Some of us have to be a little better and work a little harder since (O’Rourke) is injured and (Lopez) barely coming back,” Brown said. “We all have to chip in and work hard if we want to be the best, but I think we can do it.”

With some of the top teams on hand during Saturday’s race, Lofgren said that it was a chance for them to see how they stack up against the competition.

“I just can’t wait until we are at full strength because potentially, we can be very good,” Sheil said.