Saturday, August 31
Brea, Calif.
8:30 AM
UC Irvine
at
Mark Covert Classic
Bautista Leads 'Eaters in Season Opener
August 31, 2019 | Men's Cross Country
Results
BREA, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's cross country team kicked off the 2019 season Saturday at the Mark Covert Classic in Brea.
The Anteaters finished 14th overall and were seventh among NCAA Division I teams.
"We have a young group, and without Sam (Ayala) we were missing a little bit of depth, but the guys who ran today did well," said first-year distance coach Casey Kear. "Sebastian had an 8K lifetime best, and on this course that is definitely something to celebrate. It is not the fastest course we'll run so to start the season ahead of where he finished last year shows that he put in a good summer of work. Christian had another solid race, and Nick, having about a year and a half off had a good first collegiate cross country race.
"Our group as a whole is adjusting to the 8K, which is new for us because a lot of our guys are used to running the 5K or 3 miles for their high school races. The 8K takes a couple races to adjust to, and we'll hopefully add Sam and Michael (McCarthy) in the next couple weeks to give us a little more depth."
Sophomore Sebastian Bautista completed the 8000-meter course at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in a personal-record 25:47.7. Bautista was 25th out of 221 overall competitors, and placed 16th among collegiate athletes.
Sophomore Christian Hernandez was the next 'Eater across the finish line, clocking in at 26:48.2 (72nd). Redshirt freshman Nick Krohn was right on Hernandez's heels at 26:52.5 (73rd).
Senior Jhamani Long (27:35.2) and freshman Jason Messner (28:56.1) rounded out UC Irvine's top-five.
Sophomore Omar Adel also competed in his first collegiate cross country race (31:37.8).
The Anteaters will now look ahead to the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 14.
BREA, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's cross country team kicked off the 2019 season Saturday at the Mark Covert Classic in Brea.
The Anteaters finished 14th overall and were seventh among NCAA Division I teams.
"We have a young group, and without Sam (Ayala) we were missing a little bit of depth, but the guys who ran today did well," said first-year distance coach Casey Kear. "Sebastian had an 8K lifetime best, and on this course that is definitely something to celebrate. It is not the fastest course we'll run so to start the season ahead of where he finished last year shows that he put in a good summer of work. Christian had another solid race, and Nick, having about a year and a half off had a good first collegiate cross country race.
"Our group as a whole is adjusting to the 8K, which is new for us because a lot of our guys are used to running the 5K or 3 miles for their high school races. The 8K takes a couple races to adjust to, and we'll hopefully add Sam and Michael (McCarthy) in the next couple weeks to give us a little more depth."
Sophomore Sebastian Bautista completed the 8000-meter course at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in a personal-record 25:47.7. Bautista was 25th out of 221 overall competitors, and placed 16th among collegiate athletes.
Sophomore Christian Hernandez was the next 'Eater across the finish line, clocking in at 26:48.2 (72nd). Redshirt freshman Nick Krohn was right on Hernandez's heels at 26:52.5 (73rd).
Senior Jhamani Long (27:35.2) and freshman Jason Messner (28:56.1) rounded out UC Irvine's top-five.
Sophomore Omar Adel also competed in his first collegiate cross country race (31:37.8).
The Anteaters will now look ahead to the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 14.
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝. 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐝. 𝐋𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩.
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