EUGENE, Ore. - UC Riverside travelled north to Track Town, USA to compete against some of the fastest teams in the country at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Friday morning. The meet took place at Pine Ridge Golf Course, and was hosted by the University of Oregon. It was the Highlanders first appearance at the Dellinger Invite since 2012.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Up first for UC Riverside was the Men's 8k, where an impactful team effort landed them a third place finish, behind reigning Big West Champions Cal Poly and their hosts, the Ducks.
- Andrew Castellon finished 12th overall for the Highlanders, followed by Tyler Kaan and Joshua Mendoza who finished back to back at 27th and 28th.
- In the Women's 6k, Linda Perez led the way for the Highlanders with a fifth place finish and a time of 20:06.7, bumping her up to 2nd place in the UCR Top 10 record book.
- Collette Lowengrub finished 29th followed shortly by Dariana Miramontes, who finished at 32nd.
HIGHLANDER HIGHLIGHTS
- Andrew Castellon, in his first race as a Highlander, crossed the line first for UC Riverside with a time of 24:09.5, climbing from 84th place at the first split to a twelfth place finish overall, also finishing 8th place amongst student-athletes who were racing attached.
- In splits three through five, Joshua Mendoza was between 116th and 114th place. Over the course of the next 3:52.2, he overtook 82 competitors to finish 28th overall.
- Linda Perez held second place for the first twelve minutes of the race. She continued to hold strong through the end to finish in fifth place overall.
QUOTES FROM COACH NEWSOM
"Based on the projections that I had drawn up coming in, we had the men finishing third and the women coming in fifth and that's exactly where they finished on both sides. Anytime we are meeting the expectation coming in is a good day for us! Now, we have a three week training block before the Highlander Invite in October, so we've got some time and some racing to do before the Big West Championships. I'm very happy with where we are on September 22nd of this season."
UP NEXT
- UC Riverside will host the Highlander Invitational on October 14th at the Ag/Ops Course. Races will begin at 8:00 AM.
