Tigers Take to the Course in Second Meet of Season

REDLANDS, Calif. (Sept. 13, 2008) – Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams built on their week one performances as they traveled to the Redlands Invitational marking their second competition of the 2008 season.

On the men's side, first year sensation Eric Kleinsasser came within four seconds of winning his second consecutive collegiate cross country races. As it was, Kleinsasser had to settle for second place behind  Florian Scheulen of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Kleinsasser ran an incredibly smart race and entered the last 1000m loop with a narrow lead before being passed in the last quarter mile.

The Tigers’ second man home was senior Keith Blumenfeld who finished in fifth place overall with a time of 27:13.98. This was a 14 second improvement from the time he posted last week.

Two other seniors followed Blumenfeld home. Clay Hoadley crossed the line in 27:45.03 (his best ever cross country result) and David Martinez finished in 27:52.64, which placed them 14th and 17th places, respectively.

The top 5 was rounded out by first year Sebi Devlin-Foltz who improved on performance from last week by 36 seconds to finish in 28:24.85. Junior Victor Kali and first year Will Hollingsworth rounded out the Oxy two seven.

On the women's side, the Tigers ran without junior captain Grace Peck who sensibly choose to rest a tight hamstring. In Peck's absence, first year runner Sadie Mohler was the first Tiger home. Mohler crossed the line in 24:51.05 marking a solid first 6k effort.

Senior Rachel Keylon was the next Tiger to finish in 25:25.76. The top five was rounded out by first year Meghan Whalen, junior Denali Halsey, and first year Eliza Dornbush.

Occidental cross country teams will next compete on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the UC Riverside Invitational. Runners get started at 7:30 a.m.