Riverside, Calif. - Cal State Fullerton men's and women's cross country swept the UCR Highlander Invitational on Saturday morning. Both Jacob Smith and Trinity Ruelas earned first-place finishes in their respective races to the lead their teams to victory.
"Generally speaking, we had a meeting yesterday and talked about getting back to what we talked about in the preseason," head coach John Elders said. "Focusing on our team goals, to help each other and this was a great chance to get back on track and prepare ourselves for the Big West Championships since they are at this same course. It was really strong performances on both sides and this was perfect momentum builder for the conference meet. It was a very positive weekend for us."
The men's team won with 47 points, comfortably beating UCLA's 64 points in second place and New Mexico State's 102 in third.
On the women's side, the margin of victory was even greater as CSF tallied just 31 points while New Mexico State had 82 in second place and UCLA had 93 in third.
Smith clocked an 8K time of 24:12.3 to earn the win and lead the team to victory. Erik Gonzalez was the second Titan to cross the finish line with a time of 24:22.3 in fourth place. Anthony Alfaro took 11th place with a time of 24:42.2, Alexis Garcia was 19th at 24:49.6 and Jorge Sanchez's time of 24:55.2 was good for 21st to round out the Fullerton scorers.
"This is definitely our strongest team performance on this course," Elders said. "Alexis exploded today, he just crushed it and that's huge for us going forward if he can maintain that level. They all ran well."
Ruelas dominated the women's 6K in 20:24.5, defeating the second-place runner by nearly 12 seconds. Samantha Huerta took third place with a time of 20:43.9. Then the Titans claimed places 9-12 with Demi Marine (21:13.2), Sarah Hollis (21:15.5), Sandra Flores (21:16.7) and Alyssa Block (21:20.7).
"Trinity kind of hung back for a bit and bided her time and then after the two-mile mark she closed down the gap and then pulled away big," Elders said. "At two miles, Trinity was probably 12 seconds back from the leader and then flipped it and ended up winning by about 12 seconds. I think Demi's performance was the biggest of the day, she was awesome and I was really excited for her. Skylar Sorenson also had a career day and I'm happy for her."
Next time out, the team will host the Titan Twilight on Friday at 5 p.m. PT.
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