FULLERTON, Calif. - Cal State Fullerton men's and women's cross country open up the 2019 season on Saturday by hosting the 35th annual Mark Covert Classic at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea. The men's 8K begins at 8:45 a.m. PT while the women will run the 6K at 9:15 a.m. PT. To get an in-depth look at the 2019 men's and women's from head coach John Elders, check out the team's season preview here.
The Titans women's squad returns six of the seven runners they sent to the Big West Championships that earned a runner-up finish overall, the best team finish since 1992. Included in the cast of returns is senior Samantha Huerta, who earned a runner-up finish as an individual at the 2018 Big West Cross Country Championships and was a 2019 NCAA Track and Field All-American. Also, the Titans welcome back sophomore Lucina Vincent, the 2018 Co-Big West Cross Country Freshman of the Year, as well as Trinity Ruelas and Sandra Flores. That quartet all earned 2018 All-Big West accolades.
On the men's side, the squad returns all but one runner as well, albeit that one runner was Samuel Pimentel, the top runner on the team in 2018. However, Jorge Sanchez, Jacob Smith and Anthony Alfaro are back to lead the way for the squad that took third place in the 2018 Big West Championships.
At the 2018 Mark Covert Classic against the largest field in the event's history, the men's squad earned a third-place finish with 79 points while the women finished fourth with 88 points. Pimentel and Smith were second and third in the men's 8,000-meter race while Trinity Ruelas was sixth in the women's 6K to lead the Titans.
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