FULLERTON, Calif. – The Cal State Fullerton men's and women's cross country teams will be competing at the NCAA West Regionals this Friday in Sacramento, Calif. The championships will be held at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex, and will be begin at 10:30 a.m. (PT) for the men's 10k, with the women's 6k starting at 11:45 a.m. (PT). Fullerton will be competing on the same course for the second this season. On Oct. 4, the Titans competed in the Inter-Region Jamboree.
THE COURSE: The course layout will be on the Arcade Creek course using nine different holes following an outer and inner horseshoe design. The men's course loop is approximately 3,300 meters run three times for the 10k championship distance and the women's course has a cut-off at 2,500 meters, and it is run twice for the 6k championship distance.
THE FIELD: Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, California, Eastern Washington, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Idaho, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Oregon, Pepperdine, Portland, Portland State, host Sacramento State, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Seattle, St Mary's (Cal.), Stanford, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, UNLV, Washington, and Washington State. On the women's side the same schools will be competing along with Cal State Northridge, Oregon State, Pacific, and USC.
THE RANKINGS: The field includes six women's teams that are currently ranked among the top 25 in Div. I. That group includes No. 1 ranked Arizona, followed by No. 12 Washington, No. 15 Oregon, No. 17 San Francisco, No. 18 Stanford and No. 25 Boise State. Oregon is the highest ranked men's team, entering with a No. 4 national ranking, followed by No. 6 Stanford, No. 10 Portland, No. 28 Arizona State and No. 29 Washington.
CHAMPIONSHIP INFO: NCAA West Regional Championship information can be found at: HornetSports.com Course information, maps and race information can be found in the right-hand column under "2013 NCAA West Regional." A full USTFCCCA Regional Central can be found at: USTFCCCA.org Complete results and a recap will be posted on Fullertontitans.com.
LIVE RESULTS: Live race results will be available at: RTSPT.com. Fans can also sign up for live race text updates at: SML1.com.
TITANS LINEUP FOR NCAA WEST REGIONAL (with last year's NCAA West Regional finish, if applicable):
Women's Team Overall Finish Points Time
- Ariana Fuentes Did Not Compete
- Tijerra Lynch 186th Place 179 23:09
- Celinda Manzo Did Not Compete
- Emily Taylor Did Not Compete
- Sara Taylor Did Not Compete
- Ana Valdovinos Did Not Compete
Men's Team Overall Finish Points Time
- Jeff Little Did Not Compete
- Brandon Perry Did Not Compete
- Jose Penaloza Did Not Compete
- Jayson Perez 164th Place 161 33:18
- Sean Perez-Graham Did Not Compete
- Kevin Russell Did Not Compete
TITAN HISTORY AT NCAA WEST REGIONALS: Cal State Fullerton's best men's team finish at the West Regionals was ninth place with a total of 210 points in 1993. In 1992, the women placed seventh with a score of 161. Mike Tansley has the best men Titan finish at the NCAA West Regionals, finishing seventh in 1993 with a time of 30:19.8. Heather Killen has the best women's individual finish, with a time of 17:28.0 in 1991.
LAST YEAR AT THE NCAA WEST REGIONAL: The Titan women finished 28th with a total of 864 points. The men's side finished 25th with 784 points. Lauren McIntyre's time of 22:22 (156th overall) led the Titan women, while on the men's side, Marco Zaragoza led Fullerton with a time of 32:17 and a finish of 130th.
THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: The top two teams in each of the nine NCAA regions will earn automatic bids to the NCAA National Championships, Saturday, Nov. 23. Once the top 18 teams earn their automatic bids, 13 additional teams are selected by the NCAA to join the races in Terre Haute, Ind.
Individually 38 men and 38 women (top four per region) who are not on an advancing team earn automatic bids, only if they earn a top-25 regional finish. Once all automatic bids are set, two individuals from across each region are selected as at-large competitors for both the men's and women's races.
LAST TIME OUT FOR THE TITANS: Both the Cal State Fullerton men's and women's teams recorded their best finishes in several years at the Big West Championship.
The women were led by Sara Taylor, as Fullerton's fifth-place score of 147 points marked the best finish for the program since tying for fourth in 2008.
Taylor completed the 6K course with a time of 23:23.9, which was good for 22nd. Sophomore Emily Taylor, who shortly crossed the finish line in 27th place in a time of 23:40.9, followed her. Also scoring for the women included freshman Arianna Fuentes (31st; 23:58.1), and junior Celinda Manzo (32nd; 23:58.8).
For the men, the Titans' sixth-place finish was the best for the program since 2006 when Fullerton recorded a fifth-place score.
Jose Penaloza led the team, completing the 8K course in a time of 26:43.4. Sophomore Jeff Little and junior Jayson Perez were the next Titans to score as Little finished in 35th (27:25.9) and Perez 36th (27:28.0).
Top 3 Men's Finishers at Big West Championships
Name Overall Finish Points Time
Jose Penaloza 23rd 23 26:43.4
Jeff Little 35th 31 27:25.9
Jayson Perez 36th 32 27:28.0
Top 3 Women's Finishers at Big West Championships
Name Overall Finish Points Time
Sara Taylor 22nd 21 23:23.9
Emily Taylor 27th 26 23:40.9
Arianna Fuentes 31st 29 23:58.1
EARLIER THIS YEAR AT HAGGIN OAKS: Katie Bathgate led the Fullerton women, and Gilbert Solorza led the Titan men, as the women's and men's cross country teams finished 11th and 12th, respectively, at the Inter Region Jamboree on Oct. 4.
Bathgate finished in 44th place with a time of 17:44. Following her was Emily Taylor in 47th place with a time of 17:50. Freshman Arianna Fuentes completed the race in a time of 18:16 (77th place), and was the third Titan to finish.
Completing the top –seven finishers for Cal State Fullerton included Tijerra Lynch (79th, 18:18), Sara Taylor (86th, 18:22), Ana Valdovinos (92nd, 18:27) and Celinda Manzo (109th, 18:51).
Solorza led the Titan men completing in a time of 24:46. A trio of rookies led the men's team as Jose Penaloza finished the race in a time of 25:19 (69th) followed by Daniel Ramirez (72nd, 25:26).
Rounding out the top-seven finishers for the Titans included Jayson Perez (75th, 25:31), Sean Graham (84th, 25:40), Donald Bernard (90th, 25:44) and Kevin Russell (93rd, 25:47).
BIG WEST HONOR FOR TITAN: Junior Katie Bathgate claimed the Big West Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week honors on Oct. 1.
LONGEST-TENURED COACH: Cross country and track and field head coach John Elders enters his 26th season at the helm of each program making him the longest tenured head coach in the history of Cal State Fullerton.
Elders was tied with former fencing head coach Heizaburo Okawa (1982-2006) and former men's soccer coach Al Mistri (1981-2005) for 25 years of service at Fullerton. The Orange County native coaches cross country, women's indoor track and field, and men's and women's outdoor track and field, and is one of three current Titan head coaches who have graduated from Cal State Fullerton joining men's soccer head coach Bob Ammann and women's soccer head coach Demian Brown.