The Cal Poly men’s cross country team placed seventh at the NCAA West Regional meet held on Saturday at the Stanford Golf Course while the Cal Poly women’s team placed 23rd.
The men’s team entered the race seeded third in the West Region in the most recent Mondo poll behind Stanford and Portland, but the University of Arizona pulled off the upset in winning the race with all five scoring members of the team finishing in the top 20 and four in the top six.
Cal Poly junior Matt Johnsrud led the Mustangs with a 17th place finish while senior Andy Coughlin followed closely in 18th.
Johnsrud ran the 10K course in 30:46 while Coughlin posted a time of 30:47.
Junior Jameson Mora was the third Mustang to cross the line in 34th (31:12) followed by junior Brian Baker in 46th (31:23).
Freshman Troy Swier was the final scoring member of the team in 51st (31:28) followed by freshman Alex Dunn in 56th (31:34).
Both Johnsrud and Coughlin earned All-Region honors with their performances.
Junior Robert Cheseret from Arizona won the race with a time of 30:03. Cheseret, a native of Kapsabet, Kenya, finished second at the race last year.
Arizona was followed by Stanford, Arizona State, Washington, Portland and Oregon in the team standings.
The Cal Poly women’s team was led by sophomore Rachel Valliere with her 75th place finish on the 6K course in a time of 22:17.
Valliere was followed by Lauren Magdaleno in 102nd (22:45), Kelsey Delagardelle in 126th (23:12), Julie Hancock in 136th (23:20) and Stephanie Hamilton in 158th (24:51).
The Stanford women’s team won the West Regional with junior Arianna Lambie winning with a time of 19:29.
The top two team finishers and top four individuals not on a qualifying team automatically advance to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for Nov. 21 at the Lavern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, IN.
Another 13 at-large teams and two at-large individuals will be added to the 31-team, 255-runner men and women’s fields on Sunday by the NCAA Championships selection committee.
At-large team selection criteria is bases on teams’ head-to-head records against other actual and potential NCAA qualifiers.