RESULTS
DAVIS, Calif. - UC Riverside impressed on both the men's and women's sides in the second annual Stump Invitational on a wet Friday morning at the Wildhorse Golf Course in Davis.
Six runners on both the men's and women's sides improved their positioning in their respective final splits to finish strong in the second meet of the fall.
"There's an adjustment to fatigue and mental fortitude," head coach Nate Browne said. "Everyone did a good job. They know they're going to get better from here. I can walk away with a lot of positives and know we're going to get better."
Linda Perez (27th), Collette Lowengrub (29th) and Carolinh Calvert (30th) led UC Riverside after the first split, only for Perez to make a massive jump for the rest of the race.
The Perez jumped 15 spots to 12th after the second split, staying two seconds out of the top 10. The sophomore's jump was complete in the third kick, making one more jump to finish 10th. Calvert finished the race in 20th after jumping 10 spots from her 2k split position.
UCR's top five all ran in their collegiate debuts at Wildhorse, coming in two points away from Cal Poly and seven from UC Santa Barbara as a team.
"Our three ran together like I asked for the first half of the race," Browne added. "What was impressive was how many people they picked off, but also how fast they were able to race."
Freshman Joshua Mendoza showed out for the men's team in his first collegiate race on Friday. Mendoza found himself in 46th after the 2k split, but quickly rose to 21st at the 6k point. The breakout performance concluded with a push into the top 20 in the final results.
It was the first collegiate race for everyone on the men's side.
"One of the goals today was to make the guys run controlled at the start," Browne said. "Josh executed well and followed the strategy and was able to come on strong. It was a pretty stellar debut."
Mendoza was one of six Highlanders to move up in the field on the final leg of the race. Sean Caster turned in a top-45 finish in Davis after placing 66th at the 2k mark.
"The early pacing was something that I forced on them to make sure they finished early. We're excited about this start but also looking forward to the next few weeks as well."
UCR will next host its annual UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday, September 18 from the Ag/Ops Course in Riverside.
