Cal Poly Sweeps Individual Races at Conference Championships

RIVERSIDE — Cal Poly’s Miranda Daschian and Jake Ritter swept the individual Big West cross country titles on Saturday morning, leading a banner day at the Conference Championships for the Mustangs on UCR’s Ag-Ops Course.

Daschian paced the Mustang women’s squad to a third-place score of 51 points in the team totals, winning the 6k in 20:20.7, moving to No. 14 all-time for the course.

“She ran a very intelligent race defending her conference title,” Mark Conover, Mustang Director of Track & Field/Cross Country said. “She managed her energy well best of all and pulled away the last three-quarters of a mile and looked smooth coming in.”

A senior from Cuesta College by way of Atascadero, Daschian bested CSF’s Samantha Huerta, the Big West Athlete of the Week on Oct. 8, by 4.3 seconds to go back-to-back.

“Certainly, she’s led the team the past couple of years and to cap off her Big West Championship career in cross country, in addition to winning the 10,000 and 5,000 meter titles in track last year like this, it just adds to her legacy,” Conover commented.

Cal State Fullerton won its first-ever women’s team trophy upon tallying 44 points, edging UC Davis (50) by six.

Starting out the morning, the Mustang women — champs in three of the four previous years — also placed two teammates on the podium stand with top-10 finishes, as Sierra Brill took sixth place with an effort of 20:52.7, and Cate Ratliff came in ninth via 21:09.4.

Also for Cal Poly, Annie Meeder finished 20th, clocking a 21:29.3

The postseason continues with the NCAA West Regional Championships on Friday, Nov. 15. Washington State will host the meet at nearby Colfax Golf Complex, set for an 11:30 a.m. start.