Mammoth Lakes, Calif. - The University of California, Riverside (UCR) cross country team opened the 2021 season, their first since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Wednesday, September 1 in Mammoth Lakes with a tri-meet featuring UCLA and UCSD. UC Riverside kicked off the season with the women's 4k race at 7:30 a.m. PT followed by the men's 6k at 8:00 a.m. PT. The meet was originally to be held at Shady Rest Park, but races were moved to the Whitmore Track and Sports Field due to fire safety concerns.
Head Coach Nathan Browne spoke of the venue change, saying "The meet was changed last minute so our team didn't get chance to run over the course until this morning. The strategy was for the men to run together for three laps and the women for two laps in their respective training groups. At that point, if you're feeling good, then take off."
Carolinh Calvert was the first Highlander to cross the finish line in the women's 4000m, finishing 14
th with 16:20.0 on the clock.
Collette Lowengrub was right behind her, finishing 16
th with a time of 16:32.0. Dariana Miramontez finished third out of UCR's women and 23
rd overall, clocking in at 16:54.0. UC Riverside's nine women finished third as a team with 108 points.
Coach Browne said, "The ladies did a pretty good job of executing the race strategy with Carolinh, Collette, Dariana and Norma." He continued, "The men better executed the racing strategy overall and made the sage move of being controlled at the start. This allowed them to move up later in the race and pick people off ahead of them, instead of getting passed."
For the men's 6000m, Josh Mendoza led the Highlanders with a top-ten finish, coming in 7
th place overall with a time of 17:04.6.
Sean Caster finished strong at 11
th, recording a time of 17:23.0. out the top three finishers for UCR was
Aiden Davis, who ran a time of 17:29.0 and finished 18
th overall. The men's team performance combined for a second-place finish, besting Big West foe UCSD with a team score of 73 points.
"Individually, I thought Josh Mendoza,
Sean Caster and
Aiden Davis ran the best races," Browne said. "All three started off under control and worked themselves into a great position and pushed past people through the last 1000m to 1600m of the race."
Coach Browne reflected on the first meet in two years, saying "This is a
young group with only Jon Lee and
Austin Dai returning on the men's side, while only two returners on the women's side raced today, Victoria Erbin and
Samantha Velazquez. We are learning how to race again as a group and transfer our execution in practice to race day." He continued, "Altitude can be difficult to navigate. After the first night we had some student-athletes that didn't feel very good physically. They'll adapt and adjust, and we look forward to training for ten days before our next race at UC Davis. For our first college cross country race in two years, it was exciting to watch and a solid season opener."
The Highlanders next meet in the 2021 campaign will take place on Friday, September 10 when the team travels to Davis, Calif. to compete in the Stump Invitational.
Women's 4k – Team 3rd (108 points)
Carolinh Calvert 16:20.0
Collette Lowengrub 16:32.0
Dariana Miramontez 16:54.0
Norma Alvarez 17:02.0
Zoe Smith 18:10.0
Lydia Forsyth 18:16.0
Phoebe Forsyth 18:35.0
Samantha Velasquez 18:41.0
Victoria Erbin 18:59.0
Men's 6k – Team 2nd (73 points)
Joshua Mendoza 17:04.6
Sean Caster 17:23.0
Aiden Davis 17:29.0
Noah Murasmith 17:32.0
John Eikmeyer 17:40.0
Justin Brisco 17:52.0
Welton Ryan 17:59.0
Jonathan Lee 18:06.0
Zachary Cadima 18:35.0
Click here for full results.
