IRVINE, Calif. - The 2013 season got underway this morning at the ASICS/UCI Invitational hosted at ARC Field. The Cal Lutheran men's cross country team placed 8th in a competitive field that included Division I programs.
Showing early improvement, each runner who toed the line in Irvine last year for the 8K ran a faster time in the 2013 opener.
Leading the way for the Kingsmen, after frontrunner Matthew Garvin withdrew from the race, was the sophomore-senior tandem of Nick Privitelli and Dominick Allen. Joining the squad late in 2012, this was the first time Privitelli ran the ARC Field course and did so by pacing the Kingsmen in a time of 28:11.1 to place 50th in a field of 102.
Allen was on his heels, crossing the line in 28.27.7, which was more than two minutes faster than he ran in the same race a year ago. Also atop the CLU pack was sophomore transfer Garrett Baker. In his first race donning the Violet and Gold he ran a 28:34.2 to round out the top-three.
Both David Avila and Shawn Jackson ran sub-30 minute races, finishing in 29:02.9 and 29:22.1, respectively, to cross the line fourth and fifth for the Kingsmen.
A trio of newcomers ran together to bring up the back of the team. Ryan Perez was the sixth finisher in 30:04.6 while Daniel Tustin (31:50.1) and Chris Dunn (32:04.2) worked together throughout the entire race to finish strong in his first respectively collegiate race.
"Today started rough with Matt dropping out of the race and Garrett not feeling great, but Nick and I ran well," Allen shared after the first race of his senior season. "We still have a lot of work to do, but we are at a much better starting point than we were last year and today was a good first race for us."
The first place finisher today was Harry Mullenga (24.50.6) from Central Arizona.
Cal Lutheran will be back on the course Saturday, Sept. 21 when the Kingsmen travel to Santa Clarita, Calif. for the Mustang Challenge hosted by The Master's College. The start gun will sound at 9:00 a.m.
Results: CLU - 8th
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