NCAA West Regional Results  

STANFORD, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton completed the 2014 men's and women's cross-country seasons with 22nd and 26th place finishes, respectively, at the NCAA West Regionals on Friday afternoon at the Stanford Golf Course.

"Our performance today wasn't a reflection of how much we've progressed over the season," head coach John Elders said. "However, we did show positive improvements among our individual finishes in comparison to last season. The next step for us as a program is to show more consistency as a team and continue to increase our competitive edge."

The men's squad, was led by sophomore Jose Penaloza as he completed the 10k course in a time of 31:07.8 finishing in 81^st place.  For Penaloza, it was the second consecutive time in 2014 that he led the Titan squad after leading the men's contingent at the Big West Championships in Riverside, Calif. Fullerton's 22^nd place finish in the team standings was an improvement by two slots from the 2013 competition and the best team tally since 2011.

Big West Men's Freshman of the Year Samuel Garcia finished 98^th with a time of 31:21.5, followed by sophomore Danny Ramirez (134^th; 32:14.6), senior Brandon Cook (139th; 32:17.9), junior Jeff Little (154th; 32:36.0), and sophomores David Ramirez (155^th; 32:39.4) and Dalton Hall (182^nd; 33:31.5)

"Jose (Penaloza) continues to show that he is willing to step up and be a strong competitor," stated Elders. "The key for next season will be to really work together as a team to continue finishing higher and higher as a whole."

Oregon captured the NCAA West Regionals men's title with 60 points followed by Portland (71), host Stanford (97), UCLA (104) and Arizona State (184) to round out the top-five teams. Host Stanford's Maxim Korolev captured the individual title completing the course in 29:33.5.

The top Big West finisher was UC Santa Barbara in seventh place with 196 points.

On the women's side, for the second consecutive season the Titans were led by junior Emily Taylor as she finished the 6k race in a time of 21:50.7, which was good for 84th. It was the fifth time this season that Taylor was Fullerton's top finisher, with only a lone runner-up finish at the conference championships on Nov. 1. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native also was 10th among Big West participants, advancing 15 slots from her 25th place overall mark at the conference meet.  

Women's team captain and junior Ana Valdovinos, completed the race in 117th with a time of 22:20.8 followed by Fullerton's top runner at the Big West Championships Tejera Dial (164th; 23:01.5), sophomore Pamela Pelayo (180th; 23:17.1), sophomore Arianna Fuentes (209th; 24:00.9) and Tijerra Lynch (217^th; 24:29.0). Senior Katie Bathgate did not compete due to injury.

"Emily (Taylor) had a great bounce back performance from her conference meet to lead the women's squad," said Elders. "Overall, it was nice to see our team finish improve from last year."

Fullerton improved three slots from a season ago, finishing in 26^th place with a total of 732 points while being the highest team tally since a 24^th place finish at the 2010 event in Springfield, Ore. The lady Ducks completed the team sweep as Oregon (88) also captured the women's NCAA West Regional title followed by Boise State (103), Stanford (103), Washington (131) and UCLA (176) to round out the top-five on the team standings. Arizona State's Shelby Houlihan crossed the line as the individual champion, tallying a mark of 19:31.6.

The top Big West finisher was UC Davis in 11th place with 321 points.