Westmont’s Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams both competed this past Saturday at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational down in Claremont.
The women’s team found great success, finishing second overall out of 11 schools, while the men finished in sixth respectively.
“The women ran really well,” said Westmont head coach Russell Smelley. “They had a team spread only ten seconds greater than their race at The Master’s, and this course was a thousand meters longer too. Their team performance should move them into the top 20.”
Leading the way for the women’s team was Anneline Breytenbach and Kari Anema, who finished ninth and tenth overall respectively. Breytenbach completed the race in 22:31.7, while Anema came in seconds after with a time of 22:35.7.
Another pair of Warriors came in back-to-back in 26th and 27th, sisters Madden and Abigail Hundley. Madden, the junior NAIA All-American, finished the race in 23:32.1, while freshman Abigail came in right on her sister’s heels with a time of 23:32.6.
Rounding out the top-five for the Warriors was freshman Landon Torres, who completed the race in 23:44.7.
On the men’s side of things, junior Garrett Miller was the first Warrior to cross the finishing line, coming in 21st place with a time of 25:46.1. Zola Sokhela finished in 36th place with a time of 26:17.9, while Adam King came in soon-after with a time of 26:28.2.
Jack Vanden Heuvel and Danny Rubin came in back-to-back to close out Westmont’s top five, with Vanden Heuvel finishing the race in 26:56.8 and Rubin finishing in 27:01.2.
“Garret Miller continues to impress,” said Smelley, “and right now the men are gaining race experience and confidence that is going to help them get ranked in the future.”
Both teams are back in action later this month, when they travel to Rocklin on Oct. 23 to compete in the William Jessup Invitational.
Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.
email: dmason@newspress.com
