LA MIRADA, Calif. — Led by Tanner Long who finished 15th overall individually, the University of La Verne cross country team went 3-5 at SCIAC Multi-Dual on Saturday morning at La Mirada Regional Park.
La Verne defeated Cal Lutheran, Chapman and Redlands.
Long finished with a time of 26 minutes, 59.70 seconds. His 15th place finish is within All-SCIAC range (top-20 at SCIAC Championship).
"This is about where I wanted to be," Long said. "We trained really hard these past weeks to train through this meet. We're more championship-focused so whether or not we miss a couple places in the dual meet doesn't matter to us. We are more concerned with scoring well at [SCIAC] championships, the regionals and hopefully the national level.
Samuel Johnny finished 26th overall with a time of 27:11.79 and Mario Martinez was not far behind at 27:22.24 at 32nd place.
Christopher Arcos, one of La Verne best runners who's still working himself into shape after an injury, finished 60th with a time of 28:17.37.
Damon Gomez and Andrew Coupe came in within seconds of each other, finishing 88th and 89th, respectively, with times of 29:39.05 and 29:40.61.
Chance Griffin finished 107th at 31:04.90 and Michael Castillo came in 117th with a time of 32:15.34.
"This was a good opportunity to see where we are at the halfway point in the season," La Verne head coach Bryan George said. "We're focused on peaking for the championship meets in late October and November. We've got some work to do in the interim."
The Leopards are back in action on Oct. 15 at Pomona-Pitzer Invitational.
