Lauren RabainoBoth the men and women’s Cal Poly cross-country teams hosted the Cal Poly Invitational at the Cuesta-Fairbanks cross country course Saturday.
The women’s team completed a five-kilometer run and came in fourth place. UC Riverside, See Jane Run Racing, and Fresno State claimed the first three places.
Two Cal Poly athletes placed in the top 10. Kimberly Donatelli came in first for Cal Poly and third place overall with a time of 18:06.5. Bridie McCarey came in second place for Cal Poly and 10th place overall with a time of 18:20.9.
“We did good today. Our team is getting a lot better. We have a real young team with a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” business sophomore Donatelli said.
The men’s team completed an eight-kilometer run and came in second place to UC Riverside.
Two Cal Poly athletes placed in the top 10 in the men’s race as well. Carl Dargitz placed first for Cal Poly and came in seventh place overall with a time of 26:26.6. Tim Cannon came in second place for Cal Poly and ninth place overall with a time of 26:38.3.
“I think we all ran strong and it’s helpful that we already knew the course before we ran,” said math sophomore Dargitz.
The men’s team ran a split-squad Saturday as the other half of the team ran at the pre-nationals on the same day in Indiana. They came in tenth place overall in their race.
Cal Poly senior Phillip Reid led the team and finished 22nd overall.
“We ran a young group here who ran solid and racing is only going to make them better,” said Terry Crawford, Cal Poly’s director of cross country and track.
The men’s and women’s teams will be competing at the Big West Conference Championships on Oct. 17.
“Today was a dress rehearsal for conference. We had a young group who has room to develop because they are mostly freshmen and sophomores,” Crawford said.