The UC Santa Barbara men’s and women’s cross country teams placed 10th and fifth, respectively, at the Riverside Invite on Saturday
The women beat out Cal Baptist, who received votes in the most recent USTFCCCA Coaches’ Poll, and Big West competitors UC Riverside, Long Beach State and UC Davis. The best performer for the Gauchos was Sarah Chaves. The senior from Sacramento finished in 28th of 265 runners with a 6-k time of 20:59.8.
The second Gaucho to cross the finish line is Lauren Lum. The junior finished with a time of 21:00.2, passing five runners from the 4K split to the end of the race. Fellow junior Stina Johansson helped her team with a time of 21:20.3, jumping 10 people in the process. Following up behind her was sophomores Sierra Ransweiler and Ruby Sirota-Foster, who had times of 21:22.3 and 21:24.2, respectively.
Ava Maier and Sarah Auther finished close together with times of 21:26.6 and 21:30.5, respectively.
On the men’s side, the Gauchos earned a 10th-place finish out of 29 teams, moving up one spot from the 7.5K split. Brandon Cobain was the team’s first finisher in 34th out of 266 runners, clocking an 8k time of 24:24.4 along the way. Grabbing the second top spot on the team was Preston Bowlds in 24:29.8.
Following Bowlds was sophomore Advait Krishnan in 24:48.9. Closing out the top five for the men were Esteban Magana and Zane Golpariani. The junior and redshirt sophomore each grabbed times of 24:53.9 and 24:57.6, respectively.
Gus Marshall and Manan Vats rounded out the scoring for UCSB. Marshall, a sophomore out of LA, finished with a time of 24:59 while Vats, a junior out of La Crescenta, ran 25:11.6
The Gauchos will have next weekend off from races, giving them time to train before heading to South Bend, Indiana, for the Joe Piane Invite hosted by the University of Notre Dame.