Complete Results
SAN FRANCISCO — The Cal State Stanislaus men's cross country team picked up a top 10 finish at the NCAA West Region Championships with an eighth place showing on Sunday.
Joey Nunes and
Dawson Vorderbruegge finished 23rd and 24th, respectively, in the 10,000-meter run at the Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The 20-team event was hosted by San Francisco State.
Nunes clocked 32 minutes and 23.8 seconds while Vorderbruegge came in in 32:26.7 to finish back-to-back of each other.
"I am very pleased that (the men's team finished) eight," Stanislaus head coach Diljeet Taylor said. "Like the women's team, the men also improved from last year and I look forward to big things for the future of our program as we continue to build."
Mark Cheseto of Alaska Anchorage, who finished ninth at the 2008 Division II national meet, came away with the individual prize on Saturday with a winning time of 30:42.5, comfortably ahead of Western Washington’s Jordan Welling, who landed in the runner-up spot with a 30:59.4 clocking, while Cheseto’s UAA teammate Micah Chelimo took third at 31:05.6 in the field of 131 student-athletes.
Meanwhile, Chico State boasted the next three placers as the troika of Brent Handa (fourth, 31:07.8), Jimmy Elam (fifth, 31:11.4) and Beau Gradone-Rogers (sixth, 31:16.4) propelled the Wildcats to the team title with 42 points. Western Washington (74points) and Alaska Anchorage (96 points) also reserved their spots in the NCAA Division II Championships, Nov. 21, in Evansville, Ind., as the top three men’s teams advance to the national meet. In addition, Western Oregon’s Chris Reed (eighth, 31:26.1) and Barak Watson (11th, 31:39.8) of Northwest Nazarene also punched their ticket to the Hoosier State in two weeks, as the top two runners from non-advancing schools qualify for the NCAA Championships as well.
Also scoring for the Warriors men's team are
Shane Brookshire, who came in 54th in 33:54.5, and
Ivan Bojorquez clocked 34:32.7 for 73rd place. Rounding out the top five is
Kanwar Dhaliwal with a time of 34:46.5 (79th). Brothers
Tyler Thiele (36:05.9) and
Palmer Thiele (36:46.4) also ran on Saturday.
The Stanislaus men's team placed 10th in last year's West Region championship in La Jolla.