Men's Entries List
Women's Entries List
Course Map/Parking Info
FULLERTON, Calif. – After a strong season where the Titans finished in the top two in four of their five events, the Cal State Fullerton Cross Country squad travels to the Aloha State for the Big West Cross Country Championships at the Kahuku Golf Course on Saturday morning.
MEET INFO: This will be the first time since 1992 that the state of Hawaii hosts the Big West Cross Country Championship as it will take place at the Kahuku Golf Course. The men will start the day at 10 a.m. PT with an 8k race, while the women's 5k is set to begin at 10:45 a.m. PT.
THE COURSE: The course will be run on a majority of the Kahuku Golf Course's fairways with some crossover into the rough and around the course's sand hazards. The Big West format features nine participants per team with the first five finishers being counted for the team score.
THE FIELD: The field at the Big West Cross Country Championships will feature Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara on the men's side. For the ladies, the field is scheduled to be Cal Poly, CSUN, Hawaii, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara.
RESULTS: A PDF of the results will be available online at bigwest.org.
CSUF READY TO TAKE CONFERENCE CROWN: Manning the course in the 8k for the Fullerton men will be Gavin Bradley, Joe Casco, Jason Hillquist, Jose Penaloza, Sam Pimentel, Daniel Ramirez, Jorge Sanchez-Velazquez, Gabe Toscano and Freek Van de Weerd.
On the women's side, Stephanie Cortez, Sandra Flores, Arianna Fuentes, Samantha Huerta, Brianna Jacklin, Pamela Pelayo, Nisreen Rizk, Stephanie Ruiz and Sierra Ungermann will compete in the 5k event for the Titan women.
TITANS COMPETE AT TITAN INVITE: Three Fullerton runners participated in the women's event and Pamela Pelayo collected her best finish of the year with a 15th place finish and a time of 18.38.78 to be the top-finisher for the Titans. Kevelin Huerta also had her best finish of the season as the sophomore placed 25th overall with a time of 19:07.97. Emily Ruiz rounded out the trio of runners for Fullerton as she participated in her first event this season and placed 44th (20:25.46).
In the men's event, the Titans had seven runners compete and Gavin Bradley was the top-finisher for the men as he placed 3rd among Division I runners with a time of 25:22.50. Shelby Hernandez Jr. ran in his first event of the season and was the second Titan to cross the finish line with a time of 25:53.28 to place 6th among Division I runners. Fullerton's Martin Montes and Erick Juarez also took part in the Titan Invitational. Montes completed the course in 26:34.43 to place 11th, while the redshirt-freshman Juarez placed 12th with a time of 26:36.37. Robert Miyoshi made his first appearance of the season on Friday and posted a personal record of 25:57.07 to place seventh among Division I runners.
Prior to the event, coach Elders said the top-finished from the women's and men's event for the Titans would secure the final spot on the roster for the Big West Cross Country Championships which means Pelayo and Bradley are headed to Hawaii.
UNGERMAN AND VAN DE WEERD IMPRESS UP NORTH: Titans Sierra Ungerman and Freek Van de Weerd were the top-finishers at the West Region Preview in Sacramento on Oct. 1.
The freshman, Van de Weerd, ran his best race of the year according to coach John Elders as the Netherlands native finished 30th overall at the event and completed the course with a time of 24:41.6 to score 16 points for Fullerton.
On the women's side, Ungerman placed seventh overall and has been a key contributor to the Titans this season as she has finished in the top-10 in each event this year. The senior completed the 6k course at the West Region Preivew in 21:03.8.
COMING OUT STRONG: Through the first two races, Titan freshman Samantha Huerta has been a model of consistency thus far for Fullerton. Huerta was the top-finisher for the Titans at the Mark Covert Classic where she placed third overall with a time of 18.12.9 to complete the 5k course. At the USD Invite, the freshman put up another strong performance by placing third again with a time of 22:28 to finish the 6k course. The La Mirada native committed to Fullerton with some high praise from coach Elders as he believes she can be the key to Titan XC collecting their first Big West Title.
For the men, Jose Penaloza has been incredible in his first two races as the senior placed first overall at the Mark Covert Classic with a time of 25:01, leading the men to a second place finish. In San Diego, the Garden Grove native placed second with a time of 25:33 to be the top-finisher and get the men their first title of the year at the USD Invite.
TITAN MEN & WOMEN TAKE USD INVITE TITLE: The Cal State Fullerton men's and women's cross country teams won both the men's and women's events at the USD Invite, hosted by the University of San Diego on Sept. 17. The Titan men got started first as Jose Penaloza finished second overall with a time of 25:33 to be the top-finisher for Fullerton. Sam Pimentel and Joe Casco joined Penaloza in the top 10 by completing the course in 25:50 and 25:58 to finish seventh and ninth overall. Fullerton's Freek Van De Weerd and Jason Hillquist made top-15 finishes at the event as well to give the Titans a total team score of 40 points and the USD Invite crown. Titans Gabe Toscano and TJ Moffit also placed well at the event finishing 18th and 28th with times of 26:23 and 26:48.
Following the men's event, the Titan women got their race underway at 9 a.m. and put up amazing times across the board with four runners completing the course in the top 10. Sierra Ungeman placed first on the women's side with a time of 22:21 and fellow TitansSamantha Huerta and Stephanie Ruiz didn't finish far behind the senior as they placed third and fourth. Brianna Jacklin was the other Fullerton runner to finish in the top 10 as she placed ninth overall with a time of 22:44. True freshman Sandra Flores clinched the race for the Titan women as completed the course in 22:55 to finish 11th and give Fullerton a total team score of 28 points, the lowest meet score for the XC women's program since September of 2013 when they finished the CSUSB Invitational with a team score of 24 points. Arianna Fuentes and Nisreen Rizk placed in the top-30 for the Fullerton women as Fuentes finished the course with a time of 23:36 to place 23rd, while Rizk placed 29th overall with a time of 24:21.
XC WOMEN CROWNED MARK COVERT CLASSIC CHAMPS: For the first time since 2007, the Cal State Fullerton women's cross country team took home the crown at the Mark Covert Classic just two Saturdays ago. The Titan women put together a complete team effort as five of them finished in the top 15 to collect a total score of 41 points, being only three points shy of the program-record (38 points) in 1987. Samantha Huerta was the top-finisher for the Titans as she completed the course with a time of 18:12.9 to place fourth. Brianna Jacklin wasn't too far behind Huerta as she finished just six seconds after her (18:18.9) to place sixth among colleges. Sierra Ungerman, Stephanie Ruiz and Sandra Flores would close out the top 15 for Fullerton as the trio of Titans runners all completed the course within seven seconds of each other. Ungerman placed ninth (18:30.6), Ruiz was right behind her with a time of 18:31.0 to place 10thand Flores finished the race in 18:37.3 to place 12th among schools.
On the men's side, the Titans earned a runner-up finish with a score of 61 at the Mark Covert Classic for the second-straight season as they destroyed their score from last season by 20 points. Jose Penaloza recorded his highest finish ever at the Mark Covert Classic as the junior placed first among colleges with a time of 25:01.0. Titan Jason Hillquist also had a personal best at the Mark Covert Classic by completing the course in 25:14.6 to place second among colleges and third overall to give Fullerton the top two runners among college runners.
LONGEST-TENURED COACH: As the 2016 season gets underway, cross country and track and field head coach John Elders enters his 29th 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 is coach of cross country, women's indoor track and field, and men's and women's outdoor track and field.
UP NEXT: After the conclusion of the Big West XC Championships, the Titans will have a couple weeks off before competing at the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento, Calif., at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex on Nov. 11th.