Cal Poly Cross Country program stood up to a strong out-of-conference test with seven nationally ranked teams competing at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational on Friday in Chicago, Illinois.
Racing along the shores of Lake Michigan at the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course, the Mustang men finished fourth, just behind three ranked teams, while the women placed 11th.
The Mustangs had multiple runners on both sides making their season debut, including the 2023 Big West Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year in graduate student Davis Bove.
Bove flew to a sixth-place finish with a personal best 8K of 22:56.41, showing the rest of the country that this team is a force to be reckoned with. The three teams in front of them included No. 10 Alabama (second), No. 14 Butler (third) and No. 18 Wisconsin (first).
Bove had a standout first season as a Mustang last year, including capturing eighth place at the NCAA West Regionals and racing at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Crossing the finish line after Bove was sophomore Chris Caudillo, the 2023 Big West Men’s Cross Country Freshman of the Year, who placed 29th with a personal best 8K of 23:48.64.
Behind Caudillo was another runner making his season debut in redshirt junior Aidan McCarthy, snagging 34th place. This marked his first meet since a sub-four-minute mile (3:56.9) on Dec. 2, 2023, as he was injured for the entire 2024 outdoor track season.
Redshirt freshman Rory Catsimanes grabbed 43rd place, senior Colton Swinth placed 53rd and senior Anthony Guerra grabbed 59th in his season debut.
Rounding out the top seven runners for the Mustangs was redshirt junior Michael Chambers, finishing in 62nd.
Meanwhile, the Mustang women faced a similar challenge as they took on four ranked teams in No. 1 NC State, No. 10 Wisconsin, No. 15 Alabama and No. 29 Texas.
Their 11th-place finish out of 16 teams at the 6K championship was 18 points in front of UC Davis (12th place), the only other Big West team that competed in the meet.
After taking fourth place at the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 21, junior Tatiana Cornejo led the women once again with a time of 20:23.42 to secure a 27th-place finish.
Cornejo continues building upon an impressive sophomore year where she took 23rd at the NCAA West Regionals.
In her first race since the NCAA West Regionals, senior Schuyler Gooley snagged a 39th-place finish.
The rest of the top seven for the Mustang women included redshirt junior Isabel Sanchez (65th), senior Hana Catsimanes, who made her season debut (75th), redshirt sophomore Sophia Nordenholz (79th), sophomore Kelli Gaffney (106th) and junior Riley Cash (114th).
The Mustangs will now focus on their final meet before the Big West Championships. They’ll split their team between the NCAA Pre-Nationals hosted by Wisconsin and the Bronco Invitational hosted by Santa Clara.
Both races will kick off at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, and the top runners on both sides will be sent to Wisconsin, the site of this year’s NCAA Cross Country Championship.