POMONA, CA – On a day where temperatures hit above 100 degrees, the Leopard XC teams traveled to Pomona College to compete in a season opening tri-meet with Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental. The course was shortened and altered slightly due to the weather conditions, with the women running just over 2 miles, and the men running 3 miles – instead of the usual 6k and 8k distances. Both teams are in a heavy training phase, and used the meet as an opportunity to test out their racing legs and gain valuable experience to prepare them for the rest of the season.
On the women's side, the Leopard team is made up largely of first year students, so they were eager to get their first college race under their belts. First Years Peyton Carrera and Madison Bravo lead the charge throughout the race, with Peyton finishing slightly ahead thanks to a strong kick in the last 300 meters. They were followed closely by Junior Captain Andrea Camacho, who ran a smart race and is starting this season way ahead of where she was last year. First years Tori Medrano and Destiny Espinoza-Guerrero closed out the scoring for La Verne, followed by Junior Sydne Ruiz.
Overall, a few of the women felt like they started a little too fast in the race for the conditions, but they were able to re-set and gather themselves in the middle of the race to be able to sustain a good strong performance. This skill showed a lot of poise and maturity for a young group and will serve them well over longer races.
"I was proud of how the women's team handled adverse conditions and worked well together," Coach Norton said after the race, "we have a team that has a really strong connection to each other right now and that showed in how they pulled each other through some of the difficult moments. I'm excited for where we can get to over the next few months with more training under our belts and better recovery going into a race."
The team placed 3rd behind two very strong and deep Pomona and Oxy teams, and got a good taste of college level racing against what will likely be two of the faster SCIAC teams this fall.
The Leos return to the trails to put in a couple more weeks of training before heading to the UCR Invitational on September 17th.
