Posted: Oct 16, 2022

Mesa Cross Country Have Impressive Efforts at Highlander Invite

Sunday, October 16, 2022 - 1:40 pm | Dylan Kessler

Riverside, Calif. - The Mesa Thunderbirds men's and women's cross country teams competed at the UCR Highlander Invitational on Saturday, with many athletes running personal-best efforts.

There were 276 finishers from 26 teams in both the men's and women's races. The teams consisted of NCAA DI, DII, and DIII schools, along with several teams from the NAIA and CCCAA.

Kate Brockman was the only lady T-Bird to cross the finish line, as she placed 62nd overall out of 276 finishers with a personal-best time of 21:44 on the 6000-meter course. MaKena Thornton, Story Alexander, Lucy Lines, and Ryan Heiliger did not finish the race as they stopped at the 5000-meter mark.

"Very proud of our effort and execution today," said Head Coach Dan Pescador. "Kate had a tremendous personal best, not only for 6K but for 5K as well. She really competed well and took another leap forward. We had a small group today, so we wanted to work on pack running and mid-race execution to run a good 5K average, which the girls delivered. We're proud of how they competed as we prep for championship season."

Yotuel Garcia was 24th in the men's race and ran a huge personal-best time of 24:23.3 on the 8000-meter course. Javier Garcia (85th - 25:28.2 PB), Yael Caballero Ferro (88th - 25:33.2 PB), Joshua Lumpkin (95th - 25:48 PB), and Greyson Akers (143rd - 26:28.4 PB) also scored for the T-Birds. The men's team finished in 13th place with 352 points.

"Yotuel continued to impress, and all of his hard work was on full display," said Coach Pescador. "He ran the fastest time by any NJCAA DII athlete this season and placed in the top 25 in a loaded race. I'm very proud of how Javier, Yael, and Josh competed. They each ran personal bests and Josh joined them by running under 26 minutes for 8K. It was another great step forward for this team."

The T-Birds will have several athletes compete in the Mesa Open next Saturday to serve as the final regular-season race. The postseason will commence with the ACCAC/NJCAA Region I Championships on Saturday, October 29th, on the campus of Central Arizona College in Coolidge.

Click HERE to view the complete results of the Highlander Invitational.

T-Birds men's finishers at the Highlander Invitational (8,000 meters):

Yotuel Garcia (24th - 23:24.3 PB)

Javier Garcia (85th - 25:28.2 PB)

Yael Caballero Ferro (88th - 25:33.2 PB)

Joshua Lumpkin (95th - 25:48 PB)

Greyson Akers (143rd - 26:28.4 PB)

Wyatt Williams (153rd - 26:40 PB)

Hayden Gelder (160th - 26:44.2 PB)

Anthony Jones (188th - 27:21.9 PB)

Masen Hofmann (193rd - 27:29.8)

Samuel Van Alstine (211th - 27:49.9 PB)