Report by LBSU

The Long Beach State cross country team travels down to San Diego this Saturday for the 65th Annual Aztec Invitational hosted by San Diego State. The women’s 5K race is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., while the men’s 8K race will start at 9:30 a.m. Both races will take place at Balboa Park.

The 49ers made a strong debut in the first race of the 2009 campaign as both teams finished in second place at the Fullerton Season Opener two weeks ago. LBSU will be looking to improve from last year’s performance at the Aztec Invitational as the men’s team finished in 9th place, while the women placed 11th.

The men’s squad will be led by junior Steven DeCastro and sophomore Raul Arcos as both runners finished in last year’s race in 83rd and 95th respectively. Arcos was the top runner for LBSU at the Fullerton Season Opener two weeks ago as he crossed the finish line in 14th, while DeCatro came in at 14th.

On the women’s side, the 49ers will be led by sophomore Elisabeth Ramos and freshmen Anne Randall and Hillary Zator. Randall was the top runner for The Beach at the Fullerton Season Opener as she finished in sixth and Ramos finished in seventh.

“We are excited to get back to competition and to see both what we learned from the first race and how we have moved our fitness forward,” said distance coach Patrick Cunniff. “We have a unique challenge this year because we are racing on back to back weekends, so we will be a little conservative with both who we run and how we run,” added Cunniff.

 “Several people will sit out to get ready for Stanford, but we expect to see strong races from Liz Ramos, Annie Randall and Hillary Zator on the women’s side and Steven DeCastro and Raul Arcos for the men, we are also happy to have Mark Thomas and Travis Kuhlman making their season debuts.”