Tigers Make a Statement at the West Region Preview Meet
CLAREMONT, Calif. (Oct. 3, 2009) The women's cross country team finished second in the West Region Preview Meet on the campus of the Pomona Pitzer Colleges this past weekend. The meet not only gave the women a chance to see how they stack up with the top teams in the west, but also the opportunity to race on the course that will determine who will compete at the National Championships in Cleveland, OH., as the Sagehens will host the West Region Championships on November 14th.
The Tigers finished the meet as the top division three squad, finishing second only to UC Irvine, but placing ahead of every SCIAC squad in the field and a full minute ahead of west region rival UC Santa Cruz. The Banana Slugs were ranked ahead of the Tigers to start the season.
The women were paced by freshman Phoebe Merritt, who has been on a remarkable tear, in only her first year competing at the college level she has shown a remarkable IQ on the course. By the one mile mark she was part of a three women pack which had broken away from the field. She stayed in this pack for almost the entire race before ultimately finishing in third place in a time of 23:04.31. The second Tiger home was again sophomore Sadie Mohler. Mohler ran well from the start and just missed finishing in the top ten of the field, finishing in 11th place with a time of 23:49.01. The biggest improvement from the squad came from freshman Megan Lang. Lang ran a strong last mile and finished just four spots behind Mohler with a time of 24:15.39 (8 seconds faster than her first 6k this year which was run on a much faster course). Sophomore Eliza Dornbush also set a personal best in the 6k with a 24:24.13 clocking that was good for 18th place. Seniors Grace Peck and Denali Halsey finished in 5th and 6th place on the team (23rd and 25th overall) and sophomore Meghan Whalen rounded out the top 7 in 33rd place out of a field of 117 runners.
Oxy takes the weekend off before competing at the SCIAC Multi Duals on Saturday October 17th at La Mirada Regional Park. The meet will determine who takes the lead in the conference standings, as 50% of the final conference points will be at stake.
