The Arizona men’s and women’s cross country teams hosted the Dave Murray Invitational at the Dell Urich golf course Friday – its only home meet of the year.
The women’s team finished second to the No. 7 ASU squad and the men’s team finished fifth, as No. 19 BYU and ASU finished first and second respectively.
“”I thought that the women performed very well,”” said UA coach James Li. “”It was clearly an improvement from last year.””
Junior Irine Lagat paced the Arizona women, finishing the 4-kilometer race fourth in 13:47.62, which was three and half minutes faster than her time last year, according to Li.
“”I felt good,”” Lagat said. “”I didn’t get to run in Flagstaff (on Sept. 1), but I felt that I ran good here.””
Li called Lagat’s high finish a “”tremendous improvement”” and was very excited to see her “”running with the front pack and really running to her potential today.””
Also placing in the top 10 were junior Marissa Urban (sixth, 13:50.99) and freshman Maggie Callahan (seventh, 14:10.90). Callahan has finished the top 10 in each of her first two collegiate races.
Sophomore Shelly Splittberger (17th, 15:01.30) and freshman Kassidy Rede (19th, 15:12.11) also scored for the Arizona women.
“”I’m happy with the women’s performance overall as a group,”” Li said. “”We need to get our fourth and fifth runners stronger yet, but I think that we have the potential to have a very good team.””
The men’s team however, still has some work to do, Li said.
“”We’re not quite where we would like to be,”” he said. “”We kind of knew this coming in, being such a young team, and that this is the first experience for them in a real college race and we have a lot of room for improvement that’s for sure.””
Obed Mutayna, who graduated from Arizona this past spring, won the race for the second straight year, but his finish didn’t count towards Arizona’s scoring.
Freshman Victor Zazueta was the first Arizona athlete to finish the 6k (27th, 19:19.08).
“”I ran a good race,”” Zazueta said. “”I ran a controlled race and I felt good, although my shoes got a little heavy by the end (of the race).””
Sophomore Brian MacArthur (38th, 19:42.22), freshman Reed Blochberger (41st, 19:44.26), junior Lou Maturo (43rd, 19:46.00) and freshman Tanner Carothers (49th, 20:06.74) also scored for the men who received a “”reality check,”” according to Li.
