Men's Cross Country

Preview: SCIAC Cross Country Championships at Carbon Canyon in Brea Saturday, Nov. 2

 
The 2024 SCIAC Cross Country Championships are set for Saturday, November 2 at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea, Calif. The women’s 6-kilometer race is set for 9 a.m. with the men’s 8-kilometer race to follow at 9:45 a.m.

Championship Central

*** Official SCIAC Cross Country Championship Merchandise Available for Purchase On-Site! ***

Women’s Preview

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges remain the top-ranked team in the conference at No. 9 in the nation after their Preseason Poll billing to extend the conference’s second-longest active title streak across all sports. The Athenas closed out the regular season with a statement 1-2-3 finish by Riley Capuano, Sadie Drucker and Angie Gushue at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational. Capuano will be looking to improve on a third-place finish at last year’s SCIAC Championship race, while Gushue has a chance to make a fourth All-SCIAC First Team. The 2023 Newcomer of the Year, Revere Schmidt, also should be in the mix after a fifth-place finish in the Athenas’ final tune-up.

The Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Sagehens stormed into the USTFCCCA national rankings in week 4 and sit at No. 24 entering the Championship. With three past All-SCIAC performers in First Teamers Rhea Braganza and Mira Terdiman as well as Second Team honoree Katie Cline, depth should be of no concern behind Chloe Connolly and Joya Terdiman, who were the Sagehens’ top finishers in sixth and seventh place, respectively, at their Invite.

Program record holder Chloe Bullock has led the University of Redlands to a West Region ranking of eighth. The 2023 NCAA qualifier was the second Division III finisher at The Master’s College Invite contested the same day as the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational and will team with Eve Mavy, who placed two spots behind Bullock in 11th at last year’s Championship.

Occidental College standout Jenna LeNay matched the fourth-place finish notched at the 2023 Championship in this fall’s final tune-up at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite, which had five SCIAC teams in attendance. LeNay recorded the Tigers’ fastest 5k time in more than 20 years at the UC Riverside Invitational in late September.

Three-sport star Annika Carlson set both the Chapman University 5k and 6k program records in consecutive races to earn SCIAC Athlete of the Week recognition to conclude September. Another top DIII finish at the UC Riverside Highlander Classic netted a second Athlete of the Week honor for last year’s fifth-place finisher, who again will be joined by Amelia Jauregui after the pair qualified for the NCAA Championship last fall.

Caltech’s duo of Sophie Dalfonzo and Virginia Pistilli have proven themselves on the conference’s biggest stage with five All-Conference honors between them. Both showed signs of a similar buildup to last year with finishes of 10th and 16th, respectively, at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite. The only other rookie besides Schmidt to crack an All-SCIAC team last year, Marissa Hehir will lead the University of La Verne this weekend. California Lutheran University’s Summer Gelman has come on strong in a debut season for California Lutheran University, having placed ninth at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite after earning an early-season Athlete of the Week award. Alyssa Bolden boasts the top time this season from the Whittier College’s contingent.
 
 
Men’s Preview
Defending national champions and winners of three of the past four NCAA titles Pomona-Pitzer Colleges enter the SCIAC Championship ranked a unanimous No. 3 in the country after placing third at the Oct. 5 Pre-Nationals, a position where they have settled for the last three weeks in the USTFCCCA rankings. The Preseason Poll favorite Sagehens narrowly edged out No. 24 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges by three points at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on Oct. 19. Cameron Hatler will aim to become Pomona-Pitzer’s third straight SCIAC Athlete of the Year after placing fourth in last year’s race. Second Team selection Owen Kobett and the past two Newcomer of the Year winners, Peter Neid and Jack Stein, comprise the rest of a Sagehen quartet that all registered times within seven seconds from Hatler’s leading 25:08.40 in the final tune-up of the regular season.

The Stags have been ranked as high as eighth in the country but sit at No. 24 in the final pre-Championship poll. Two-time Second Team All-SCIAC honoree Adam Sage has kicked his performances into another gear this season and most recently was the top Division III finisher at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite, beating out Hatler by four seconds. Oliver Pick placed sixth in last year’s Championship and Daniel Fajardo was 14th to form a potent trio capable of threatening the Sagehens’ run of dominance.

The University of Redlands returned to the West Region rankings at No. 10 in the final poll ahead of Championship weekend behind a stellar performance from Stian Asper at the UC Riverside Highlander Invitational that earned him SCIAC Athlete of the Week recognition. His blazing time of 24:44.7, albeit on a historically fast course, ranks second in program history and was a personal-best by nearly a minute compared to his rookie season. Ronan Byrne crossed the line 17 seconds behind Asper, who along with Hatler, who earlier in the year on a similar course ran a 23:58.1, were the only runners to receive two Athlete of the Week nods this fall.

Caltech peaked at a No. 6 ranking in the West Region, though was dropped from the poll after the Pomona-Pitzer Invite. Miles Jones was the Beavers’ top finisher in 12th place on Oct. 19, though every competitor will be aware of last year’s SCIAC runner-up, Rohun Agrawal, who employed a similar build-up to the Championship in 2023.

The only other SCIAC team to crack the regional Top 10 this season is the University of La Verne. Fernando Cortez Jr. and rookie Logan Ciszek lead the charge for the Leopards, while Occidental College’s Jack Elfenbaum placed 18th at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite. Sebastian Sawyer and Eric Talbert have been California Lutheran University’s top duo, while Gavin White fronted Chapman University at The Master’s Invite and Cameron Riccio has combined with Kiyoshi Todd for the Whittier College Poets.
 

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