Bridget Veltri
sports@mustangdaily.net
UC Riverside’s Chad Hall, the younger brother of Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall, entered Saturday’s Big West Conference Cross Country Championships as the favorite in the men’s race, just ahead of Cal Poly’s Daniel Gonia.
Midway through the 8K race, though, the Mustangs’ leader made his move.
“As the race developed, it got down to Daniel Gonia, Chad Hall and Scott Smith as they broke away probably just after 3 miles,” Cal Poly head coach Mark Conover said. “They went into the orange grove and Daniel came out with a big lead just after four miles.”
He’d keep it and pull away for a winning time of 24 minutes, 2.4 seconds.
More importantly, it showed that not much had changed in the conference’s order, as four other Mustangs finished in the top seven at UC Riverside’s Agricultural Operations Course and Cal Poly won an unprecedented sixth straight Big West title.
“Again, the team displayed really smart up-front running and just ran a really great race with a lot of intensity,” said Conover, the conference’s five-time coach of the year.
Rounding out the Mustangs’ top five were Evan Anderson (second, at 24:15.6), Carl Dargitz (fourth, 24:24.3), Joe Gatel (fifth, 24:25.7) and Troy Swier (seventh, 24:37.7).
The 23rd-ranked Mustangs, who placed four other runners in the top 22, finished with 19 points, comfortably ahead of UC Davis’ second-place 71.
On the women’s side, Bridie McCarey finished eighth on the 6K course in 20:38.1 to pace the Mustangs, who improved on last year’s seventh-place finish and tied for fourth with 117 points – 57 behind champion UC Riverside.
Also in the top 15 for Cal Poly were Lauren Mulkey (in 10th, at 20:47.3) and Brienna Morris (14th, 21:03.3).
“Bridie, Brienna and Lauren really ran well,” Conover said. “It’s something to keep building on for the future with our young women’s team.”
The Mustangs will run next at the West Regional at Stanford on Nov. 15.
Women’s Volleyball
UC Davis 3, Cal Poly 1
For the first time since 2004, the Mustangs lost to the Aggies, falling 18-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-22 Saturday night in Davis.
Cal Poly outside hitter Ali Waller had a match-high 17 kills, and middle blocker Jaclyn Houston posted match-bests for hitting percentage (.538) and blocks (eight) in defeat.
For the two-time defending Big West Conference champion Mustangs (13-9, 8-3), the loss came on the heels of a 3-0 defeat at Pacific on Friday night – their first time being swept by a conference foe since 2005.
With the loss to the Aggies (11-13, 3-8), the Mustangs gave up first place in the conference to idle Long Beach State (18-4, 7-2), which they’ll host at 7 p.m. Saturday in Mott Gym.