The ASU Invitational was a training meet in every sense for the various members of the No. 5 Arizona men’s and unranked women’s cross country teams Saturday.

Some of the Wildcats’ less swift runners from both squads got a rare taste of collegiate competition Saturday, and Arizona senior Robert Cheseret celebrated his 23rd birthday weekend with a victory.

The Arizona men won the event with 40 points behind Chereset, who took first place out of 103 runners in the 8-kilometer race with a time of 24:23.9 a day before his birthday.

Cheseret was left in Arizona’s lineup to “”give him an opportunity to win another race and get back into winning,”” after sitting the first two meets out in the beginning of the season, said James Li, the UA cross country head coach.

“”We really didn’t need Robert to run in this meet,”” said Li, alluding to the fact that both teams’ top runners were withheld to train for the Pre-NCAA Meet next Saturday.

The ASU alumni finished second with 65 points, followed by Rice (82), ASU (108) and NAU (135).

Sophomore Jason Colavito (11th, 25:27.6) was the second Arizona man to finish, with freshman Brian McArthur (15th, 25:40.5), junior Ben Eid (17th, 25:46.4) and sophomore Lou Maturo (21st, 26:00) also keeping a tight pack to ensure the win.

“”You just have to keep up with the guy in front of you,”” said sophomore Dylan Fitzpatrick, who came in 12th with a time of 25:31. “”I was looking at Jason Colavito in front of me and just tried to stay right on him for as long as I could.””

Having no one to cling to in the same fashion, Colavito had the disadvantage of the pack, as Cheseret finished ahead of him by a good margin.

“”Having some of the slower guys run and still pull out a win was pretty cool,”” Fitzpatrick said.

The Wildcat women ended in fifth place with 114 points, as ASU’s alumnae team took first with 36 points, followed by the University of Victoria (58), No. 8 ASU (80) and NAU (81).

Freshman Tiffany Sorrell was the first Wildcat to cross the finish line in the 5K race, coming in 11th out of 69 runners with a time of 19:15.9.

She was followed by freshman Adele Keating (17th, 19:46), sophomore Angela Farr (24th, 20:05.7), freshman Sarah Romano (36th, 20:50), sophomore Staci Ulibarri (40th, 21:38.5) and freshman Elizabeth Cary (48th, 21:57.2).

“”For the other younger runners, it was a great opportunity to get them some experience running at the college level,”” Li said.