OFFICIAL RESULTS

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – Ricardo Vargas and Leandro Candray led the No. 25th-ranked Cal Poly Pomona men's cross country team to a fifth place finish, and were among six Broncos to achieve personal records, highlighting action at the NCAA D2 Pre-Nationals meet on Saturday at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, Wash.
 
CPP scored a 158 to place fifth out of 27 teams, and was third among NCAA Division II West Region squads. 2019 national champion Colorado School of Mines won the event, scoring just 19 points with all five scoring runners placing in the Top 8 (including 1-2-3). Chico State took second with 83 points, followed closely behind by Western Colorado (91 points) and Western Washington (143) in third and fourth, respectively.
 
In just his fourth collegiate race, Vargas placed 12th overall out of 217 runners, running a personal-best 24:11.7 to record the ninth-fastest eight-kilometer time in program history. His 4:52 average pace per mile also tied for the 14th-fastest in CPP men's cross country history. Meanwhile, Candray finished in 20th with a PR 24:22.1, which is now the 16th fastest 8K time for the Broncos all-time.
 
Daniel Echeveste (24:49.5; 35th overall), Tom McDonnell (25:07.3; 51st), David Flores (25:07.9; 52nd), Vincent Sarino (25:11.6; 57th), Francisco Zavaleta (25:13.2; 59th), Chris Razo (25:15.0; 63rd), Gideon Pichardo (25:25.7; 75th) and Diego Duran (25:33.0; 84th) all finished ahead of more than half of the 217-person field. Echeveste, Flores, Zavaleta and Razo all set personal-bests on Saturday as well.
 
The NCAA D2 Pre-Nationals race served as the final regular season tuneup for Cal Poly Pomona, which now sets its sights on the 2022 CCAA Championships in two weeks on Nov. 5 at the new Palo Corona Trail in Carmel.
 
Bronco Bits

• Saturday marks the 29th meet for head coach Chris Bradford in his fifth season at CPP (six years overall).
• Ricardo Vargas (4:52) and Leandro Candray (4:54) recorded sub-5:00 average pace per mile times; it is the 78th and 79th time in the history of the CPP cross country program that a runner has clocked a sub-5:00 average mile time (out of 1,744 all-time finishes).
• It was the 25th time in program history the Broncos ran a race with 25 or more teams, and it was the seventh time they have finished Top 5 in such races.
• The Broncos tallied the fifth-lowest score (158) in program history in meets with 25 or more teams.
• CPP has raced three other times in history on October 22nd, all three were CCAA Championship meets (2005, 2011, 2016).

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