2014 Women's Cross Country Schedule
SAN MARCOS, Calif. – Head coach
Steve Scott and the Cal State San Marcos women's cross country team have released the team's 2014 fall schedule, highlighted by the Cougar Challenge on Oct. 18 at Mangrum Track & Field.
CSUSM is coming off a 2013 campaign that saw the Cougars win five races and earn their sixth-straight top-10 finish at the NAIA National Championships. The Cougars placed eighth nationally last season.
The year will begin with a meet against Vanguard and The Master's College in Mammoth Lakes on Sunday, Aug. 17. The men's and women's cross country teams travel to Mammoth in the preseason every year for a team-bonding experience, and this meet will be the culmination of the team's time together.
The Cougars will have nearly a month off before competing in Saturday, Sept. 13's UC Riverside Invite, which will include many NCAA Division I and II competitors. Last season, CSUSM won the race by placing four runners in the top eight scorers – including race winner
Ayded Reyes.
The following weekend, CSUSM heads to The Master's College Invite in Santa Clarita on Saturday, Sept. 20. In last year's event, the Cougars had five runners place in the top 11 spots in a 17-team field with 153 runners.
On Saturday, Oct. 4, the Cougars head to the Pomona-Pitzer Invite in Claremont, where Reyes and
Kate Bouvatte went 1-2 last year.
Then it's back home for the annual Cougar Challenge, which CSUSM will be hosting for the eighth-straight year. Bouvatte earned her first career victory with a personal-best time of 17:30 in 2013.
The regular season will conclude with Oct. 25's Biola NAIA West Coast Jamboree. The race was the only regular-season competition that CSUSM did not win in 2013. Instead, the Cougars took third.
The Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Championships will take place somewhere other than San Marcos for the first time since 2008. The A.I.I. title will be decided on Nov. 8 in Clinton, Iowa. CSUSM looks to reclaim its conference crown after a runner-up finish on its home course in 2013.
If they win the A.I.I. title or are granted an at-large berth, the Cougars will compete in Nov. 22's NAIA National Championships at Rim Rock Farm in Lewiston, Kan. CSUSM has competed in 13 of the last 15 NAIA National Championships.
