Oxy Distance Carnival Results
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (Mar. 13, 2009) – The Bill Henry Track and Patterson Field were packed tonight with runners from more than 25 colleges and universities as well as athletes from clubs and unattached competitors for the 2009 Oxy Distance Carnival.
Tonight’s event kicked off a two-day track and field filled weekend as Occidental will follow the Carnival as host to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Top-4 meet on Saturday.
Among the broad spectrum of runners today were all eight SCIAC schools as well as NAIA, NCAA Division I and II and former professional, international competitors and unattached athletes.
The winner of the women’s 5K, Carrie Tollefson, who finished in 15:49.31, was the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials winner. On the men’s side, the winner of the 5K, Marco Cheseto, a Kenyan runner who runs for Alaska-Anchorage finished with a time of 14:07.48
Oxy 2008 graduate Kevin Chaves returned to his old stomping grounds to finish second to Cheseto in a time of 14:47.81.
Another standout performance came from a local seventh grader, Hannah Finchamp, who finished 15th overall in a field of 52 in the 1500m women’s event with a time of 5:04.02.
Among other highlights from tonight were a couple of Oxy
runners. Eric Kleinsasser (middle of
photo), who was the 2008 SCIAC Cross Country
Runner of the Year finished 11th in a field of 80 in the
5000m with a personal best time of 15:10.33. Claire
Larson finished second in her first collegiate 800m race
in a time of 2:18.77. Larson finished ahead of the former U.S.
record holder in the 3000m Steeplechase, Grace Padilla.
A complete list of results can be found here.
