Men's Cross Country Shatters Personal Bests at Highlander Invite
October 16, 2021 - 1:00 pm | Dylan Kessler
Riverside, Calif. - The Thunderbirds men's cross country team competed at the UCR Highlander Invitational Saturday morning, with every T-Bird runner hitting a new personal best for 8000 meters.
Mesa was 20th out of 26 teams who scored. However, The T-Birds were only one of five junior college teams racing at the meet. The remaining 21 teams were either NCAA or NAIA affiliated.
Caden Resendez lead the T-Birds with a 46th place finish and a time of 24:57.1. Yotuel Garcia was the second T-Bird to cross the finish line, closing in at 25:33.4 and placing 88th. Aiden Tinen (116th, 25:54.1), Nathan Mann (159th, 26:26.7), Connor King (184th, 26:50), Brandon Wilson (193rd, 26:58.9), Geoffrey Grossthal (196th, 27:04.5), and Masen Hofmann (225th, 27:45) were the remainig Mesa athletes who finished.
"Very proud of our effort and the results," said by Head Coach Dan Pescador. "We knew coming in that we were going to be one of the only of a handful of junior colleges against mostly NCAA Division I programs. Each one of our athletes bettered their times by a minute or more. Tremendous effort by Caden getting under 25 minutes. Yotuel was a huge boost running mid 25s. We accomplished what we set out to do."
Up next, the T-Birds will run in their final regular-season meet of the season at the ACU Invitational next Saturday on the campus of Arizona Christian University in Glendale.
UCR HIGHLANDER INVITATIONAL COMPLETE RESULTS
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