SPOKANE, Wash. - UC Riverside's distance crew made the trip to Spokane over the weekend for the WSU Open, finishing off the Highlanders' back-to-back trip to the Pacific Northwest. 

"I had a tough task for the group with everyone running a 5k on Friday night and coming back to double on Saturday," assistant coach Zach Newsom said. "Everyone responded well to that challenge. We set some all-time marks and some other personal bests. We're looking forward to getting back on this track for MPSF in a couple of weeks."

5000m races were up first for the men and women in Spokane, and Collette Lowengrub wasted no time setting a new indoor record with an event-winning 16:43.84. Carolinh Calvert narrowly missed her indoor best and Norma Alvarez just missed the top 10 list with a 17:39 in her 5k debut. On the men's side, Joshua Mendoza and Tyler Kaan went 2-3 while Lance Denhalter turned in a sub-15 debut in the event. 

Alvarez kicked off day two in eastern Washington with a collegiate best in the mile, taking third with a time of 5:08.25 while Calvert moved up to fifth all-time with a 4:52.85. UCR was just as successful on the men's side. Denhalter cracked UCR's top 10 with a 4:15.04 while Kaan jumped into seventh with a 4:12.83. Ashraf Abdelmagid also clocked in at 4:17.49 in his indoor mile debut. 

UCR wrapped up its trip to the Pacific Northwest in the 3k with Sean Caster (8:26.82) and Joshua Mendoza (8:30.58) going three and four.

UC Riverside will head to the MPSF Championship February 17-18 from Spokane.