Men’s team places five scorers in the top nine and Beraki wins to produce 24-point effort in 8-kilometer race, with women’s lineup having five athletes in top 11 in 6-kilometer competition to achieve 30-point performance, as Northern Colorado freshman Mpigachai prevails in California

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

RIVERSIDE – Adams State’s cross country teams showed Saturday morning it can be dominant at any elevation and against any division.

The perennial NCAA Division 2 power eased to team victories in the UC Riverside Highlander Invitational at the Ag-Ops Course, romping to wins for both the men and the women.

The men, ranked No. 2 in Division 2, went 1-4-5-7-9 and scored 24 points in winning, with the top-ranked women having athletes place 3-4-8-10-11 and scoring 30 points in their victory.

RESULTS | INTERVIEWS

Adams State junior Awet Beraki ran hard for the entire 8 kilometers to win individually in 23 minutes, 23.6 seconds. Northern Colorado freshman Regina Mpigachai outlasted the front pack in the women’s 6-kilometer race to win in 19:46.6.

Saturday marked the Grizzlies’ first competition this year near sea level, as their hometown of Alamosa, Colo., has a listed elevation of 7,545 feet. It also provided an opportunity for the Grizzlies to run against Division 1 competition, with both the Pacific-12 Conference and the Big West holding their conference championships at the UC Riverside course in two weeks, and that fact encouraged more teams to compete in Riverside as a preview.

Yet, Adams State made itself right at home, just like it hopes to Dec. 2 at the NCAA Division 2 national final in University Place, Wash., when the men’s team seeks a 14th national title and the women’s lineup will pursue a collegiate record for all divisions and genders with a 20th cross country national championship.

“I think for us, today is about trying to learn how to run together to pack it up a little bit at sea level,” Adams State coach Damon Martin said. “You know, the kids don’t always get to come to sea level, and so being able to run here, it’s a little bit faster pace, a little bit more turnover. I think we wanted to get them to experience that before we go into championship season, and so I think today was a good opportunity for that.”

Beraki, a runner-up in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Division 2 track and field last year, ran strong and in control ahead of runner-up Ian Sanchez Lopez of Arizona (23:45.0) and third-place runner Alexis Garcia of Cal State Fullerton (23:49) for a 22-second victory.

“I took it from the beginning,” Beraki said, “and just tried to hold it.”

Behind Beraki was a competitive lead pack that stayed that way into the finishing chute. Sanchez Lopez and Garcia were followed by two more Adams State runners in junior Cameron Allan (fourth, 23:40.2) and senior Clement Duigou (fifth, 23:51.0).

“I had a game plan the whole race today,” said Garcia, who led the Titans to a third-place team finish and the best showing by a Division 1 men’s program.

“It was to get up there in the front pack and (in the) second loop. I was going to try to pick off more people, which I did. I went from around 10th place to third place in the last mile or so.”

Fullerton was also tops among Big West teams, with thoughts of the upcoming conference finals. The Titans finished ahead of UC Riverside (seventh) and UC Santa Barbara (eighth).

Former Mt. San Antonio College standout Daniel Abdala, competing unattached, finished sixth in 23:56.4. Adams State’s No. 4 and No. 5 runners, sophomore James Dunne (23:58.2) and senior Miguel Coca (24:02.9), finished seventh and ninth respectively, to round out the Grizzlies’ scoring. 

Azusa Pacific junior Nixon Korir broke into the top 10 with an eighth-place finish in 24:00.3. He also led the Cougars to an impressive runner-up team finish with 103 points.

Colorado freshman Jake Derouin, whose teammates were split between Riverside and the Nuttycombe Invitational in Wisconsin, finished 10th in 24:04.9. Derouin said Buffaloes runners who were in Riverside were acting as course scouts, of sorts, for their friends in Wisconsin in preparation for the Pac-12 final Oct. 28 on the Ag-Ops layout.

Mpigachai stayed with the front pack of the women’s race and then surged ahead in the final half-mile for the win.

Originally from Tanzania, Mpigachai set a program record by nearly a full second last month at the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational in Nebraska. Saturday, the placing was more impressive to her than the time.

“I’m so excited with this race,” she said. “First off, I didn’t know I would win. That’s a huge experience I got today because I was so nervous at first.”

Cal State Fullerton junior McKaylie Caesar was the runner-up in 19:52.8, achieving a six-second personal best for her. Like the men’s side, she led the top Division 1 team Saturday, as Fullerton was second with 70 points.

But the team champ got juniors Brianna Robles and Precious Robinson to finish third and fourth, respectively, in 19:54.4 and 20:03.9. Sophomore Emily Schoellkopf (eighth, 20:33.6), senior Franziska Althaus (10th, 20:35.1) and sophomore Morgan Hykes (11th, 20:38.7) rounded out the Grizzlies’ scorers.

“We’re going to be a deep team, I think, on the girls side,” Martin said. “I saw a little bit of that today. Certainly we can be better but I think today was a great middle-of-the-season meet for us.”

What did help all runners Saturday was ideal weather. Temperatures were in the low 60s and with overcast skies, similar to Sept. 17 at the UC Riverside Invitational.

When dust, heat and smoke are often the norm in the Inland Empire during September and October, the two UCR meets offered rare ideal competing conditions this year.

“We really tried to prepare," said Martin, who also said his team was going to try to hit both Hollywood and the beach before flying home Saturday night.

“At home, we were wearing sweats and doing different runs just trying to prepare for the heat and humidity.

“It turned out that wasn’t as beneficial as it needed to be.”

UC Riverside sophomore Collette Lowengrub finished fifth in 20:12.6 to equal the program record at the Ag-Ops course set in 2014 by Raquel Hefflin, just ahead of former Cal State Fullerton standout Trinity Ruelas, who ran unattached and placed sixth in 20:18.1.

On what was a less-than-stellar day for the community colleges, Golden West sophomore Marikay Schwab stood out as the best junior college performance. She finished seventh in 20:29.1 in her first 6-kilometer competition this season.

The other top-10 finisher was Cal State Fullerton sophomore Mia Bergman in 20:34.6.