2018 SF State Invitational Results
SAN FRANCISCO – In their second meet of the season, the Academy of Art men's and women's cross country teams each delivered runner-up finishes both led by trios within the top 10 in the SF State Invitational at Golden Gate Park on Friday afternoon. Each race was won by an Urban Knight with graduate students
Victor Moreau and
Hasna Kaarour each besting their closest competition by at least three seconds apiece for the titles.
Much of the first half of the men's 8k race was paced by Moreau along with redshirt junior
Rabah Houali and graduate student
Freddie Hessian. Though the pack separated late, all three crossed the finish line among the top five individual finishers with Moreau's 25:12.6 bettering second-place's Gabe Plendcio (Biola) by nearly four full seconds. Houali took third overall with a time of 25:27.8 and Hessian followed in fifth, offering a 25:40.7 mark.
The final two qualifiers were not far apart from one another as redshirt freshman
Logan Briner checked in at 32nd overall (27:08.9). Behind him in the 35th position was redshirt junior
Joshua Browne who turned in a time of 27:13.3 across the line. A total of 101 runners from 11 schools competed in the 8k race.
In a similar fashion as the men, the Academy of Art women's team had three finishers come through in the top eight. Kaarour and senior
Giulia McIsaac were leading the way for an early portion and eventually Kaarour herself stepped out in front of the group. She would finish first overall with a time of 22:10.6 ahead of Biola's Mackenna Mason who ended with a 22:13.7 mark.
McIsaac could be found a few steps ahead of redshirt freshman
Audrey Rosencrans down the stretch with the pair going seventh (22:50.2) and eighth (22:53.9) respectively. Redshirt junior
Emma Johnson provided support with a 17th place finish and a time of 23:26.6 while senior
Ashley Brown rounded out the qualifiers in 33rd (23:59.5). A total of 107 competitors representing 12 schools finished the 6k race.
In both team scores, the Urban Knights finished runner-up to PacWest Conference competitor Biola. The men offered an average time of 26:08, but with all five qualifiers ending up within the top 12, the Eagles took the title. ART U topped UC Merced and Notre Dame de Namur both by a considerable margin. On the women's side, Academy of Art completed the 6k course in an average time of 23:04 behind Biola's 22:47, but ahead of Cal State East Bay and host SF State among 10 others.
Academy of Art will next appear at Lewis' Conference Cross-Over, returning to Romeoville, Illinois for the second consecutive season on Oct. 6.
