Junior Jesus Rivera warms up during the ASU cross-country team’s practice on Oct. 3. (Photo by Kyle Newman)The ASU cross-country program showed its depth on Saturday at the Grand Canyon University Invitational in Estrella Mountain Regional Park on Saturday when it ran its “B” teams.
The men placed third, while the women finished fourth.
The course was 8,000 meters for men and 5,000 meters for the women.
Men’s team finishes third
At 57 points apiece, the men’s team finished in a point-scoring tie with Cerritos College for second place.
The tiebreaker is awarded to whichever team had the fastest sixth-place finisher.
ASU’s sixth place finisher, junior Jesus Rivera, finished behind Cerritos’s Oscar Contreras, that gave the Sun Devils the third place finish.
In arguably his best collegiate race ever, redshirt senior Josh Walker took second place overall. He finished with a time of 24:58.6, the fastest individual time for the Sun Devils.
Redshirt freshmen Jeff Bickert followed about 13 seconds after Walker, placing sixth overall.
In his Sun Devil debut, redshirt junior Garrett Seawell took third for ASU and seventh overall. Seawell transferred to ASU from American River College.
Redshirt freshmen Daniel Wong, redshirt sophomore Andy Cannata and Rivera rounded out as the rest of the point-scorers for the Sun Devils.
Women’s team gets fourth
The Sun Devils placed fourth and were led by sophomore Kayla Springford.
Springford finished with a time of 18:36.3, good enough to place her fifth overall.
Freshman Alexia Velarde finished close behind Springford for sixth overall.
Three sophomores — Shaina Corbin, Taylor Conway and Dalanne Bartlett — finished up the race for the Sun Devils.
Competing unattached, sophomore Carly Paracholski ran a stellar race. She finished in a time of 18:34.7, giving her the fourth best time of the meet.
Up next for both squads is the Wisconsin Invitational on Friday, which is expected to be one of their most challenging meets of the year.
Reach the reporter at gdemano@asu.edu
