Poets have strong showing in SCIAC Multi-Duals; Narrowly miss upset of La Verne
Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LA MIRADA, Calif. – The Whittier College men's cross country team came out strong in the SCIAC multi-duals finishing fourth narrowly missing an upset bid of the University of La Verne.
Whittier finished the multi-duals with wins over Cal Lutheran, Redlands, and Caltech and missed the upset bid of regionally ranked La Verne and the 3rd place finish by three points 30-27.
Coach Phillips discussed after the race that "most of our men looked good early and late in the race, but the mid section hills cost us due to an aggressively fast start. Its progress though and we look forward to upsetting them at the SCIAC Championships and move up to 4th in SCIAC. Last year we finished tied for 5th… fourth would be progress."
The Poets were led by freshman Marco Godinez who has been running strongly all season as he finished in 20th out of 117 runners with a time of 28:08.70.
Coming in right behind him though in 21st was sophomore Hayden Schmidt who ran one of his best races of the year as he finished with a time of 27:52.65.
Coming in a minute later in 25th and 26th place and with times of 28:09.70 and 28:10.80 were freshman Javier Banuelos and junior transfer Nathaniel Smauley who continue to make big strides this season helping the Poets make that final push towards the SCIAC Championships.
Whittier has made progress all season and has a young squad that looks to make a big run towards a 4th place finish in SCIAC.
The Purple and Gold return to the terrain in two weeks as they take part in the SCIAC Championships, Saturday, October 29 at Prado Regional Park located in Chino Hills, Calif. beginning at 8:30am.
