Women’s Cross Country
The Azusa Pacific women’s cross country team came within 13 points of sixth-place Western Washington team, which received the final team qualifier in Saturday’s NCAA Division II Cross Country West Regional Championships.
“It’s a tough region,” said head coach Preston Grey. “We knew it would be really close in those last couple spots.”
Senior Staci Foster led the team’s top finishers in the sixth position overall, securing an individual qualification for the NCAA national championship meet Dec. 6 in Louisville, Kentucky. The transfer was just 17 seconds behind the meet’s first-place finisher, Katelyn Steen from Western Washington.
“She comes from a really great program at Colorado,” Grey said. “She stepped in and wanted to be part of the group and wanted to end her career on a high note – and she’s doing just that.”
Freshman Eileen Stressling was the Cougars’ second finisher, coming in 21st overall, while sophomore Kyle Betts (28th place) and seniors Kristie Sikma (67th place) and Elle Farrar (83rd place) rounded out the team’s top five.
Men’s Cross Country
Freshman Jeremy Porter’s 27th overall individual finish paced the men to their ninth-place team standing, just one minute and 25 seconds in collective time behind the sixth-place Simon Fraser squad that sealed the meet’s final national qualifier.
Freshman teammate Cody Drisko finished 45th overall, followed by sophomore Kyle Bueckert (54th place), freshman Hunter Gulino (72nd) and senior Peter Buscheck (85th) to wrap up the team’s top-five finishers.
“We competed really well and we have things we can build off of moving forward,” Grey said. “We’re really young, so it takes time for them to transition, but we know we’re right there and that we can qualify in the future.”
California Baptist’s men’s cross country was the only PacWest program to claim a national qualifier as a team.