By: Tyler Lobe, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
OFFICIAL RESULTS | ARCHIVED VIDEO
REDLANDS, Calif. – Led by individual meet champion
Ricardo Vargas, the 22nd-ranked Cal Poly Pomona men's cross country team opened the 2022 season with a first place finish and the team title at the Redlands Invitational Saturday morning in Redlands.
Vargas and 10 other Broncos finished in the Top 15, securing a team score of just 18 points, blowing past runner-up Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, which tallied 45 points. Redlands (94 points), Riverside CC (105) and San Bernardino Valley (165) rounded out the Top 5 in the team standings.
It is the 38th time in program history that CPP has taken first place at a cross country meet, and the first team title since the Broncos won the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational back on Oct. 12, 2019.
In his first-ever collegiate cross country race, Vargas won with a time of 18:35, becoming CPP's first individual champion since Alejandro Ambrosio won the Redlands Invitational to open the 2018 season. Vargas also joins elite company, becoming just the 16th student-athlete in Cal Poly Pomona men's cross country history to win a race; it is the 25th individual title overall for the program.
Finishing four seconds behind Vargas for second place was
Leandro Candray (18:39), followed by
Tom McDonnell (18:49),
Gideon Pichardo (18:54),
Evan Franco (18:57) and
Vincent Sarino (19:03) for finishes in fourth through seventh place, respectively.
In ninth through 12th places overall were
Francisco Zavaleta (19:03),
Chris Razo (19:06),
David Flores (19:10) and
Nicholas Albro (19:19).
Alejandro Mariscal (19:29) came in 15th place and
Christian Coley (19:50) took 25th out of 112 runners on Saturday.
Cal Poly Pomona will return to action in three weeks on Sept. 24 at the Cougar Challenge, hosted by Cal State San Marcos. The eight-kilometer race will begin at 8:30 am.
Bronco Bits: Saturday marks the 26th meet for head coach
Chris Bradford in his fifth season at CPP (six years overall) … This is Bradford's sixth team title since leading the Broncos … The 18 points scored by CPP are the lowest since it won the Kim Duyst Invitational on Sept. 1, 2017 with 17 points …
Ricardo Vargas' time of 18:35 is the fastest recorded time in program history across all distances, topping Mark Huizar's 6K time of 18:37.3 at the CCAA Preview Meet in Ontario on Sept. 2, 2016 … CPP has only raced one other time in history on September 3rd, and the Broncos also won that race (the Cal State Fullerton Opener) back in 2005.
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