Photo Finish: Kleinsasser takes second in West Region, men place eighth

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Nov. 14, 2009) – He led for more than 25 minutes and 26 seconds, but in the end, Occidental College sophomore Eric Kleinsasser was out stepped in what turned into a photo finish at the West Regional cross country meet hosted by Pomona-Pitzer this morning. The 2009 SCIAC Runner of the Year placed second, just 16 hundredths of a second behind the winner as the men’s team placed eighth in the 16 team field.

Kleinsasser paced the pack throughout the meet before crossing the finish line in 25:26.81, which was a 13.29 second improvement from the preview meet on the same course earlier this season. With the Top-35 finish, Kleinsasser was the only Tiger harrier to be named to the All-West Region Team. He will compete next weekend at Nationals, hosted in Cleveland, Ohio.

The second Oxy finisher was senior Victor Kali who completed the 8K in 27:49.47, placing 52 in a field of 105 as he suited up in black and orange for the final time. Finishing third for the Tigers was sophomore Thomas Cahuzac, with a time of 28:05.29, shaving off more than 13 seconds from his preview meet time.

In an interesting turn of events, freshman Mario Castillo ran more than a mile with one shoe, but still competed, turning in a 28:24.03 performance. 

Sophomore Sebi Delvin-Foltz was the fifth finisher for the Tigers, running in a time of 28:37.43 to round out the scoring.

Also running for Oxy today were freshmen Avery Mainardi (30:24.94) and Charlie Sauter (30:56.00).