Freshmen Vasquez And Lopez Lead USC Cross Country At Waves Invitational

Women’s Cross Country | September 09, 2023

Freshmen Angelina Vasquez and Marjourie Lopez led the USC women’s cross country team to a third-place tie in points, fourth by the tiebreaker, at the Waves Invitational (4K) held at Alumni Park on the campus of Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif. this morning (Sept. 9).  The Trojans, who placed second at the LMU South Bay Twilight Meet last week, posted consecutive top five finishes for the first time since the 2015 season.

“We did a better job today,” said USC Associate Head Coach for Cross Country/Assistant Track & Field Coach Jebreh Harris.  “I love how we followed the game plan of being together the first half of the race.  We had a 28-second, five-women gap.  That was one our goals, to close the gap among our top five.  Overall, it was a job well done from what we are working on right now with our team.”

The last time USC finished in the top five in back-to-back cross country meets was when it tied for second at the UNLV Invitational on Oct. 3, 2015 and took third at the Highlander Invitational on Oct. 17, 2015.

Vasquez was the first Trojan finisher today, placing 15^th with a time of 14:16.9, followed closely by USC’s top finisher last week, Lopez.  Lopez finished 16^th overall with a time of 14:19.9.

“Angelina is steadily moving forward, she’s being consistent, she’s being competitive,” said Harris.  “Consistency is what helps a person become more successful.”

USC’s third through fifth-place fnishers and team scorers respectively were junior Gigi Maccagnini, graduate transfer Marina Soares and sophomore transfer Lucia Rabolli.  Maccagnini placed 21^st with a time of 14:28.7, Soares was 30^th with a time of 14:42.9 and Rabolli was 31^st with a time of 14:44.5.

Graduate transfer Tracy Towns was USC’s sixth runner and she placed 36^th with a time of 14:52.5, just under three seconds behind the sixth UC San Diego runner who placed 35th, which ended up deciding the tie breaker.  USC’s seventh runner was graduate student Leah Disher who placed 49^th with a time of 15:12.7.

The remaining Trojans in order who did not finish in the team scoring today were freshman Haley Spoden (50^th, 15:13.5), graduate transfer Marne Sullivan (63^rd, 15:59.8), redshirt sophomore Jacqueline Duarte (64^th, 16:02.6) and senior Alyssa Blockburger (79^th, 16:58.0).

“The goal was to stay patient the…