OFFICIAL RESULTS  |  ARCHIVED VIDEO

SAN MARCOS, Calif. – Leandro Candray shattered his previous eight-kilometer best time by 49 seconds to place sixth overall, leading the No. 17-ranked Cal Poly Pomona men's cross country team to a fourth place finish out of 17 teams Saturday morning at the 15th Annual Cougar Challenge, hosted by Cal State San Marcos.
 
Candray crossed the finish line in a time of 24:32.2, coming in just 15 seconds behind individual winner Nixon Korir of Azusa Pacific. It was the third time in seven career races that Candray has been the top finisher for the Broncos. Tom McDonnell (24:56.1) and Ricardo Vargas (25:01.2) came in right next to each other in 17th and 18th places, respectively, ahead of Vincent Sarino (25:16.9) and Gideon Pichardo (25:18.8) in 26th and 27th places to round out the team scoring of 88 for the Broncos. Pichardo's time is a new personal-best in an eight-kilometer race, the eighth of his career, topping his previous best by 11 seconds.
 
David Flores (25:44.4) took 39th, followed by Nicholas Albro (25:50.6) in 45th, Chris Razo (25:52.5) in 49th, Francisco Zavaleta (25:56.0) in 51st, Evan Franco (26:00.0) in 54th, Christian Coley (26:17.6) in 70th and Alejandro Mariscal (26:42.7) in 88th out of 206 competitors in the field.
 
Chico State won the race with a score of 32 as its top five finishers placed in the Top 10. Azusa Pacific (70 points) and Pomona-Pitzer (77) finished ahead of CPP (88) in the team standings while Cal State San Marcos (184) and Stanislaus State (188) took fifth and sixth, respectively, out of the 17-team field.
 
Cal Poly Pomona will head to the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational in Claremont in two weeks on Saturday, Oct. 8. The men's race on the Pomona College Campus Course is set to begin at 7:45 am.
 
Attention to all current Cal Poly Pomona students! The athletics department is sponsoring a "Pack The Course" Fan Bus to cheer on the Broncos at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite. The cost is FREE for all CPP students, and coffee and donuts will be provided. For more information and to secure your spot on the bus, go to broncoathletics.com/fanbus.
 
Bronco Bits: Saturday marks the 27th meet for head coach Chris Bradford in his fifth season at CPP (six years overall) … This is Bradford's 18th Top 4 finish since leading the Broncos … Leandro Candray's average pace per mile of 4:56 was just the 76th time in the history of the CPP cross country program that a runner has clocked a sub-5:00 average mile time (out of 1,716 all-time finishes) … CPP has only raced one other time in history on September 24th; the Broncos took 15th out of 28 teams at the 8K Stanford Invitational on 9/24/2011.
 
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