09/19/09

Cross Country Records Fall on UCR's Farm Course

Riverside, Calif – UC Riverside Farm Course – Vanguard University’s cross country teams are off to tremendous starts this season, including an impressive performance for the second year in a row on the hilly course at the UC Riverside Invitational. The Vanguard women’s team set a new school record for a 5k team time, and each of the Vanguard men set a new personal record in the 8k on UCR’s Farm Course. The combined efforts also produced solid team finishes among a very competitive field with the women placing 17th among 27 teams and the men coming in 13th out of 30 teams.

Banking the success of the season on a tight cluster of finishes among Vanguard’s first five runners, the Vanguard women improved their chances of returning to the top 25 of the NAIA rankings with today’s results. Lowering the school record for the 5k team time from 2006’s 1:34:25 at the Region II Championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park to a time of 1:33:32, the Lions were the fourth-fastest NAIA team in the Women’s 5K Invite, following only Azusa Pacific, CSU San Marcos, and Biola.

Lead by sophomore Megan Williams, who placed 39th with a time of 17:54, the Lions had six of seven runners post the best 5k time of their career. Also setting a new Personal Record (PR), Williams broke the 18-minute barrier for the first time and lifted her name up to third on VU’s all-time list, behind only Grace Jepngetich and Sherri Hall. Freshman Araceli Zainos made her 5k debut in 69th place with an outstanding time of 18:15, the second-lowest VU freshman time in the history of the program. Sophomores Chelsea Van Cott (18:55, 117th) tied for eighth on the all-time sophomore list while classmate Emily Canales (19:00, 122nd) notched a new PR with a 1:37 improvement over her time on the same course last year. Freshman Jazmine Reyes completed VU’s scoring today with a respectable time of 19:26 in her first career 5k (No. 9 all-time freshman mark), and VU’s final two runners, Lauren Minnick (20:04) and Olya Zamucen (21:31) also registered personal best times as the Lions raced in a competitive field of 217 runners.

Shortly after the women’s race, Vanguard’s men lined up with over 340 other runners for the men’s 8k Invite. For the second meet in a row, junior Christian de Glymes paced the Lion pack with a personal best mark of 25:27.9, finishing 48th overall. De Glymes’ time, the sixth best all-time mark in the men’s program, helped lead Vanguard to a team time of 2:11:15.10 and 13th place in the team standings. Sophomore Matt Johnson was only 17 seconds behind de Glymes, coming in 51st, breaking his PR with a time of 25:44.2. Keeping the Lion pack tight, senior Mike Hartanov crossed the finish line with the fastest 8k of his career (25:52), breaking the 26-minute mark for the first time. Freshman Fernando Orozco and junior Nick St. Andre completed Vanguard’s scoring with personal bests of 26:58 and 27:11, respectively, and Chris Ponce wrapped up VU’s PR sweep with a time of 27:45.

The No. 19-ranked Lion men beat all GSAC schools in the meet, including No. 21 Azusa Pacific, California Baptist, The Master’s, and Biola.

Use the following links to view complete women's results or men's results.  Vanguard's results from today are listed below.

Next up: Vanguard Invitational (Saturday, October 10th)