Led by juniors Danny Reid and Kevin Lindsey along with a surprise effort by freshman Caleb Lynch, the Cougars were top finishing non-Division I team tallying 149 points with a 5-man average of 25:31 for the 8K course.
Only 26 seconds separated Azusa Pacific’s top 4 runners with Reid leading the way with a career-best 25:10 to finish 17th individually out of 238 runners. Lindsey followed with a 25:13 for 20th place. Lynch, a first-year runner out of Washington High School in Phoenix, Ariz., clocked a 25:30 for a 2-minute personal record to jump into the mix of Azusa Pacific’s core 5 runners.
“Caleb is beginning to understand how to run in a collegiate cross country meet,” said Azusa Pacific head coach Bill Reeves. “In high school he just out-ran everybody and was always in the lead. Now he is contending with runners who have his type of ability and having to run in a pack for the first time.”
Sophomore Peter Sherman was fourth with a personal-best 25:36.
The Cougars averaged 25:31 per man and in the process knocked off GSAC-rival and the NAIA’s No. 7-ranked Concordia, which finished sixth, 35 points behind Azusa Pacific.
Meanwhile, the Concordia women backed up their No. 4-ranking in the NAIA by edging the No. 8-ranked Cougar women in the Riverside Invitational. Concordia finished fourth with 116 points while the Cougars were sixth out of 12 teams with 153.
Senior Brianna Carstensen led the Cougar contingent by running an 18:07 5K to finish seventh out of 87 runners. Freshman Whitney Jacobsmeyer continued to excel during her rookie campaign by finishing tenth with an 18:16, to make her the tenth fastest Cougar on a 5K course in Azusa Pacific cross country history.
Azusa Pacific was hampered in its team effort at Riverside when earlier in the week the Cougars’ No. 5 runner Janae Chapin went down with an ankle injury that may keep her out as long as 3 weeks. As a result of Chapin’s absence, well over a minute and 33 runners separated Azusa Pacific’s fourth and fifth runners in the Riverside Invitational.
Azusa Pacific takes the next 2 weeks off and returns to action at the GSAC Championships, Oct. 23, at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa, Calif.
