After sweeping the Big West Cross Country Championship for the men’s and women’s side, the Mustangs traveled to Sacramento for the NCAA West Regional.
Both teams finished eighth overall in the competition.
For the men, graduate student Davis Bove secured his trip to nationals as one of four runners not on automatically qualified or at-large teams.
Redshirt junior Anthony Guerra for the men and sophomore Tatiana Cornejo for the women round out the other two runners who placed in the top 25.
Men’s Cross Country places two runners in top 25
Streaking across the finish line with a time of 29:18.5, Bove secured eighth place on Friday in the NCAA West Regionals to clinch a spot in the 2023 NCAA Championships.
Six spots behind him Guerra placed 14th and earned All-West Region honors. Guera, a three-time All-Big West honoree ran a personal best
Bove and Guerra’s performances helped lift the Mustang men to a top-10 placement.
Bove clinched an individual spot to nations as one of the top four runners, not on an automatic qualifying or at-large team.
The LSU transfer notched a 10K personal best and tied the second-fastest finish in Mustang history on the men’s side in the race.
Bove posted the eighth fastest time in the history of Sacramento’s Haggin Oaks Golf Course.
He is now the second runner under Ryan Vanhoy, the Director of Track and Field & Cross Country, to clinch an individual championship spot for Cal Poly.
Vanhoy, who joined the program before the start of the 2022 season, will be sending his second runner in two years to the NCAA Championship.
In 2022, graduate student Jake Ritter took 12th place at the regionals and went on to take 90th place at the championships under Vanhoy’.
Clinching an NCAA Championship berth is another mark of a dominant season for Bove. On top of the Big West Championship individual title that he won just over two weeks ago, he holds two other first-place titles as well.
After Bove, Guerra crossed the finish line with a 10K personal best of 29:32.6. Behind him, junior Aidan McCarthy came in 51st place with a time of 30:23.5.
Coming in fourth place for the Mustangs and 63rd place overall was redshirt sophomore Spencer Pickren, finishing at 30:37.3. Rounding out the Mustangs was 2023 Big West Men’s Freshman of the Year Chris Caudillo, in 79th place, and junior Colton Swinth, in 87th place. Caudillo finished with a time of 31:02.0, and Swinth finished close behind with a time of 31:07.8.
Pickren, Caudillo, and Swinth all posted 10K personal bests to cap off their season.
Bove will look to cap off his season with some magic at the 2023 NCAA Championships, as he travels across the country to run in Charlottesville, Virginia, at Panorama Farms. The race will be televised live on ESPNU on Nov. 18th, with the men’s race starting at 8:10 a.m. PST.
All seven runners for women’s secure personal bests
All seven of Cal Poly Women’s Cross Country runners walked off the Haggin Oaks Golf Course with new personal bests in the 6k.
The team placed eighth out of 37 schools at the NCAA West Regional, which is the program’s highest placement since 2013.
Cornejo was the first Mustang to cross the finishing line, placing 23rd overall at 20:05.5. Not only did she beat her personal best in the 6k, but she also earned All-Region honors by placing in the top 25.
Following close behind Cornejo was red-shirt junior Schuyler Gooley, placing 28th (20:16.3). The next to finish was junior Hana Catsimanes in 41st (20:33.3), sophomore Riley Cash in 55th (20:39.8), and junior Carissa Buchholz in 68th (20:46.6).
Finishing up the race for Cal Poly was redshirt sophomore Isabel Sanchez, coming in at 91st place (21:02.2), and freshman Syndey Sundgren in 119th place (21:30.7).
The season comes to a close for the women’s team along with the men’s have secured back-to-back Big West Championships under Vanhoy and women’s head coach Michelle Chewens’ leadership.