The University of Redlands women's and men's cross
country teams finished up their respective seasons in the Southern
California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), placing
third and fourth, respectively, at the 2008 SCIAC Cross Country
Championships in Chino on Saturday.
Hosted by Pomona-Pitzer Colleges at Prado Park, the women ran a 6K
while the men competed in the 8K.
In each meet this year, Head Coach Aaron Olswanger had a different
female student-athlete cross the finish line first for the
Bulldogs. Saturday was no different as junior Kelly Luck (Boulder,
CO) earned First-Team All-SCIAC honors with a 10th-place, 24:37.38
finish.
Sophomore Heather Mayer crossed the line shortly thereafter, taking
13th with a 24:50.18 standard while sophomore Katie Ostrinski
(Riverside, CA) placed 16th (24:59.06), freshman Fiona Wilhelm
(Boise, ID) finished 18th (25:02.73) and freshman Camila Alvarez
(San Bernardino, CA) nabbed the 20th-place spot with a 25:06.11
mark.
Each of those student-athletes garnered Second-Team All-SCIAC
laurels.
Olswanger said that it was the team's goal going into the
championship meet to place five on the all-conference team.
“I thought that if we ran well and ran according to plan,
we'd have five [student-athletes] in the top 20,” he
said.
Notably, junior Stephanie Mera (Redlands, CA) placed 34th
(25:35.95) and senior Avery Kelly (Fort Worth, TX) crossed the
finish line 47th (26:24.86).
For the men, junior Jake Baechle (Aurora, OH) took home First-Team
All-SCIAC honors with a ninth-place time of 26:41.30.
Olswanger said that Baechle had the cross country race of his
life.
“Jake had a huge day; he looked awesome,” Olswanger
said. “It was a huge personal best for him. He's a
middle-distance runner and a short guy on the track, plus
he's new to cross country. He's only going to run
better.”
Freshman Duncan Ashby (Goleta, CA) put the team in position to
finish well with a 25th-place finish (27:42.76) while sophomore
Jeremy Kalmus (New Orleans, LA) took 28th (27:52.52).
Also scoring points for Redlands were sophomore Alec Fillmore
(Riverside, CA, 31st, 27:57.28), freshman Aaron Minsk (Puyallup,
WA, 44th, 28:34.38), senior Jeff West (Denver, CO, 61st, 29:27.31)
and sophomore John Burbank (Atlanta, GA, 65th, 29:40.22).
Both teams will send its top harriers to Willamette, OR, for the
NCAA Regional Championship meet on Saturday, Nov. 15. The meet is
scheduled to start at 10 a.m.
