With 122 points, the Cal Poly men’s cross-country team finished third at the NCAA West Regionals on Saturday morning and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA National Championships on Nov. 21.
On the women’s side, senior Leanne Fogg and true freshman Meghan Breadmore punched their tickets to the national championship meet as individual qualifiers, marking the first time in school history that an individual from the women’s squad has made it to the Division I finals.
The men’s team was one of two schools to qualify for the national championships with an at-large bid following their finish behind automatic-qualifiers Stanford and Portland at the Stanford University Golf Course on Saturday.
The men were paced by senior Daniel Gonia who finished ninth overall and covered the 10K course in 29:28. He finished just behind fellow Big West runner and conference champion Chad Hall of UC Riverside.
“It was an amazing time,” Gonia said. “I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect race. Everybody was involved. Everybody moved up. Everybody did what they were expected to do. Everything just came together and it was amazing.”
Cal Poly’s five scoring runners finished in the top 37, while all seven runners competing for the Mustangs finished in the top 47 out of 172 competitors.
Junior transfer David Cardona placed second for the Mustangs finishing 20th in a time of 29:56. Cardona was followed by 29th place finisher Ryan Cosens in a time of 30:10, Sean Davidson in 35th place (30:16) and Brandon Shirck rounded out the top five finishing in 30:17. Other Mustangs competing in the race were Chris Frias (30:25) and Michael Johnson (30:27).
According to head coach Mark Conover, the men used pack running to their advantage and ran within themselves to secure the berth to the national championships.
“They controlled all the variables they could control as far as what they needed to do to perform at the level they did, and they went and executed the race, so my hat’s off to them and as a reward they get to go run in the NCAA championships,” Conover said.
On the women’s side, the Mustangs entered the meet ranked 14th overall, but left Palo Alto, Calif., with a ninth-place finish spurred by All-Region selections and national championship qualifiers Fogg and Breadmore.
The Mustangs finished ahead of Big West foes Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara, both of whom bested the Mustangs two weeks ago in the conference championships.
Fogg finished the 6K course in 16th place with a time of 20:45, 66 seconds back of champion and former local standout Jordan Hasay of Oregon.
She was followed closely by freshman phenom Breadmore, who covered the course in 20:47 — good enough for 17th overall.
Conover noted the team’s determination and ability to work together in helping Cal Poly receive its first ever berth to the national championships for the women’s program.
“They ran such inspiring races,” he said. “They helped each other pass a couple of women they needed to pass in order to secure one of the coveted individual spots to the championship. It was really something to watch, and a true testament to what they wanted to get accomplished.”
Freshman Tansey Lystad finished 75th overall and third for the Mustangs in a time of 21:55, followed by Courtney Kostrikin with the same time in 76th place and Noelle Garcia who concluded Cal Poly’s scoring five, finishing in a time of 22:03.
Fogg said she was jubilant to achieve her goal of reaching the pinnacle of collegiate cross country: running in the NCAA Championships.
“I’ve never felt any more excitement accomplishing something like that before, and I’m still in disbelief about it,” Fogg said. “I’m just very happy to be able to qualify with my teammate Meghan. We have each other and we can do work together (at the national championships).”
The men’s team, along with Fogg and Breadmore, will head to Terre Haute, Ind., for the championship race Monday where they will take on the rest of the qualifiers from their respective regional meets.