Sophomore helps Stags sweep top four spots in men’s 8-kilometer race in San Bernardino; Cal State L.A. standout Rebecca Ruiz wins women’s 5-kilometer event, but Athenas place four in top 10 to secure victory

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

Kyril van Schendel saw a dramatic year-to-year improvement Saturday and credited longtime Claremont-Mudd-Scripps coach John Goldhammer.

That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, of course, but the width of what the Stags and Athenas can do continues to be impressive, even by Goldhammer standards.

CMS dominated in sweeping victories Saturday at the Coyote Challenge at Cal State San Bernardino, with the men going 1-2-3-4-6 for 16 points over runner-up Concordia (90) and third-place College of the Sequoias (111). The CMS women also won by a significant margin, tallying 38 points to Concordia’s 66 and 86 for third-place Glendale Community College.

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Van Schendel, a sophomore, outsprinted a race-long lead pack of four CMS runners, sprinting to the victory in the 8-kilometer race around the softball and soccer fields near the outskirts of campus in 24 minutes, 11.6 seconds.

That was an improvement of 83 seconds from this very meet a year ago.

“I think for every runner, improvement is very good,” van Schendel said. “It keeps you motivated to push even harder and test the limits even more.

“It’s a good example,” he added, “of what our coach, Coach Goldhammer, is able to do with us.”

Van Schendel, senior Thomas D’Anieri, junior Stevie Steinberg and sophomore Miles Christensen broke away in a front-running pack about 800 meters into the race and stayed together, out front, until they sprinted to the finish in the final half-mile.

D’Anieri wound up in second place at 24:12.4. Steinberg, 16th here a year ago, was third in 24:14.4 and Christensen, ninth last year, was fourth Saturday in 24:21.9.

“The idea with this race was run in packs and to take the first 1,000 out really fast,” van Schendel  said, “and keep it very even during the middle, and then, during the last 1,000, just sort of give it everything we’ve got. For me, just sprinting is a way to practice that final finish, and I think everybody on the team was trying to do that.

“I was really happy to see that my group, the first group, was able to stay together for basically all of the race,” he added. “I think that’s how we will take care of business. We’ll have to run as a pack and really push each other.”

CMS, in fact, accounted for nine of the top 12 spots on the men’s side, including six in the first seven. The lone non-CMS runner was also the top junior college competitor, as College of the Sequoias sophomore Ismael Ramirez followed the CMS pack and finished fifth in 24:28.7.

Ramirez, who figures to contend for a community college state title in November, admitted it wasn’t easy to hold off when the CMS pack broke away.

“It was definitely tempting to go with them,” he said, “just knowing that the pace is just going to keep getting faster.”

Rebecca Ruiz also had to show patience in the women’s race. Cal State Monterey Bay sophomore Brooke Roy surged to a huge lead in the first mile before Ruiz, part of state championship teams in cross country and track at Mt. San Antonio College the past two years, reeled her in at about the race’s halfway mark.

Ruiz won in 17:46.6, followed by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps sophomore Riley Harmon (second, 17:58.5), Concordia senior Bailey Wade (third, 17:58.9) and Roy, who hung in there after losing her lead and claimed fourth place in 18:04.5.

“It kind of took me by surprise,” Ruiz said, “because the front pack started off really strong and really fast. And I was like, ‘I’m just going to stay patient and I don’t want to, because I know it’s a rocky course and I don’t want to take the chance of going around and hurting myself. So I just waited until the right time, until the girls were a little more organized, per se.”

Harmon, 23rd last year as a freshman, and teammates Sophie Gitlin (sixth, 18:11.8) and Abby Johnson (eighth, 18:12.5) led an Athenas’ charge to their 28-point win over Concordia.

“We had a game plan that eight of us stick together for a group until the last 1K,” Harmon said. “So we went out fast and then hung back a little bit and stuck together, which I think was super effective for team morale and just sticking to our pace.”

Glendale sophomore Phoebe Forsyth was the top community college women’s runner, finishing fifth in 18:08.9. Glendale, the top-ranked two-year college in the state, ran a team record for average time, clocking 18:32 per runner, with Yajaira Calderon (18:13.3) in ninth and Jamie Levin (18:20.2) placing 13th.

“I think we just all wanted to race well and PR, which we did,” Forsyth said.