LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Advancing to the NCAA Division II National Championships race in back-to-back seasons for the first time in nearly a decade, the Cal Poly Pomona men's cross country team will compete against the country's best on Saturday morning.
The championships will be held Saturday in Louisville, Ky., at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park as part of the 2014 NCAA Division II National Championships Festival. The Louisville Sports Commission and Bellarmine University will serve as co-hosts of the championships.
The 10,000-meter event is set to begin at 8 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern) and it'll mark the 17th all-time nationals appearance for CPP. The Broncos' men's cross country program owns one national title, which came in 1983.
Last year at the D-II National Championships, CPP finished eighth for the program's best performance since 1997. Saturday's championship site of E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park is familiar for Bronco fans. The CPP women's cross country team competed at the same site in 2010, when the Broncos finished 19th at the NCAA D-II National Championships.
This year's CPP men's cross country squad features plenty of balance in terms of experience.
Brandon Haugen is the lone senior competing on Saturday and he's joined by a trio of juniors -
Francisco Gomez,
John Dominguez and
Teague Senninger - along with sophomores
Mark Huizar and
Troy Stechmann. Freshman
Ruben Dominguez is the only first-year student-athlete in the group.
At the West Region Championships in Montana last month, the Broncos placed third overall with four All-Region individual performances.
The Broncos totaled 101 points, trailing just first-place Chico State at 30 points and second-place Alaska Anchorage at 53 points. Huizar led the CPP squad, finishing third individually with a time of 30:48.89. With a mile pace of 4:58, that mark stands as the sixth-fastest 10K time in school history and the fastest in 24 years.
Joining Huizar with All-West Region honors were Gomez, Senninger and Haugen.
As the Broncos have done throughout the 2014 season, this group of seven CPP runners will certainly represent the university well on Saturday morning in Kentucky.
