Nov. 12, 2005
PALO ALTO, Calif. - The Arizona State University cross country teams headed to Palo Alto, Calif., and the Stanford Golf Course Saturday for the 2005 NCAA West Region Championships and returned to Tempe with several solid showings and eight all-region honors. The Sun Devil women finished second overall behind the Cardinal (24-48) while the men finished third with 100 points while Arizona (33) and SU (80) made the Top 2.
By finishing second in the meet, the women have automatically qualified for the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Nov. 21 in Terre Haute, Ind. The meet will mark the eighth year in a row the women have advanced to the national meet. The men, who placed third in the men's results, will now await word from the NCAA selection committee on Monday to see if they are one of the 13 at-large teams that will be included in the national meet.
On the women's side, Amy Hastings again led the team as she finished second in the 6,000m race at 19:58.4, trailing only Stanford's Arianna Lambie, who won the race at 19:29.3. The two front-runners were the only two to complete the course in under 20 minutes with third place crossing at 20:12.5. Hastings was joined in the Top 10 by Victoria Jackson and Anna Masinelli, who finished seventh (20:25.0) and 10th (20:30.0), respectively. Jenna Kingma (20:41.9) placed 13th and Rachel Ellison (20:54.0) was 16th to round out the Top 5 scorers for the team. Cassie Rios (21:12.8) and Corey Randall (21:46.5) also competed for the Sun Devils and finished 22nd and 55th, respectively.
The men's race, which was dominated by runners from both Arizona State and Arizona, saw two Sun Devils place among the Top 10 with Casey Burchill leading the charge with his third-place finish. Burchill, who covered the 10,000m course in 30:09.3, was among the break-away group to cross the line first that included race winner Robert Cheseret (30:03.3) and Obed Muntanya (30:05.7) of UA. After Burchill, the next closest placer was 10 seconds behind.
Burchill was followed across the line by Ryan Warrenburg, who placed seventh at 30:23.2 and were the lone Sun Devils in the Top 25. Joey Heller (30:56.3) in 26th, J.J. Duke (30:57.4) in 27th and Roger Cahill (31:17.2) in 37th rounded out the scorers for the men's side. Eric Dall (31:27.0) and Kal Clark (32:15.4) also ran for ASU and finished 50th and 77th, respectively.
Overall, six women and two men earned All-West Region honors for their performances in the meet. By placing in the Top 25 of the individual standings, women's runners Hastings, Jackson, Masinelli, Kingma, Ellison and Rios each attained the regional accolade while men's runners Burchill and Warrenburg also attained the award on the day.
The NCAA Cross Country Championships are next for the Sun Devils and will be contested Monday, Nov. 21, at the Wabash Valley Center in Terre Haute, Ind.