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Cal takes home a pair of top 40 finishes in the season finale.
Cal Men Place 12th Overall, Women Take 14th
SACRAMENTO – The California men’s and women’s cross country teams took home a pair of top-40 finishes at the NCAA West Regional competition in Sacramento on Friday morning. In their season finale, the Golden Bear men placed 12th while the women took 14th place, which were both nine-place improvements from last year’s regional competition. Full meet results from today’s competition can be found here.
“Both teams had respectable showings today,” Cal head coach Bobby Lockhart said. “It was nice to see the student-athletes rebound from the Pac-12 Championships and have their best race today.”
On the men’s side, sophomore Caden Carney took Cal’s top scoring position in his first-ever NCAA regionals appearance. He clinched 40th place out of 205 total runners with a 30:04.8 in the 10,000-meter race. Fellow sophomore John Sesteaga broke his 10k record by nearly a full minute to finish in 30:17.6 and claim Cal’s second scoring position.
All-Pac-12 Second-Team selection Carrick Denker also posted his best mark in the 10k, coming in 55th place with a 30:28.4 run. Senior Gabriel Abbes set a new personal best with his 31:27.1.
On the women’s side, freshman Amelia Wardle-Stacey broke into the top 40 of the women’s 6,000-meter run in her debut NCAA regionals appearance. Wardle-Stacey notched the Bears’ top scoring slot for the fourth time this season with her 20:31.2 mark, good for 38th place out of 253 total runners.
Senior Claire Yerby was Cal’s next scorer with a 20:42.7 run and sophomore Georgia McCorkle rounded out the top-three scorers with a 20:57.3.
“This was a great year for the program both culturally and developmentally,” Lockhart said. “We made big steps from a year ago and have a wonderful foundation of driven student-athletes determined to take the program to new heights.”
The Bears’ distance squad will now turn their focus to the upcoming indoor track & field season in 2024.
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