Heat can't keep Chapman runners from faster finishes

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – In spite of early morning temperatures around 90 degrees in Riverside, the Chapman University men's and women's cross country teams had several runners see improved finishing times in the second meet of the year at the UC Riverside Invite on Saturday.

Just as they did last week, sophomore Emily Ralston and freshman Chris Reid paced the Panthers as the teams' top finishers in each race. Ralston placed 85th overall with a time of 20:17.7 in the women's 5K, improving by 24 seconds over her debut finish at UC Irvine last week. Meanwhile, Reid kept his same pace with a time of 28:28.3 and a 67th place finish in the men's 8K.

The Panther women placed 16th out of 18 teams in the Collegiate Open. Sophomore Charlie Truax (22:20.4) and freshman Avalon Derlacki (22:22.2), each making their season debuts, placed 160th and 162nd and less than 2 seconds apart. Freshman Marisol Diaz (22:43.4) and junior Paulette Garcia (25:04.0) also had improved times from their initial performance last week.

Sophomore Spencer Berry shaved a few seconds off his previous results to help the Chapman men place 10th of 11 teams in the Open race.

Results: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/xc/2012-13/files/UCRInvite.pdf

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

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