2023 Cougar Challenge Results
SAN MARCOS, Calif. – It was a historic Saturday morning out at San Marcos Championship Course as Academy of Art women's cross country junior
Grace Southern emerged with the fastest 6k to date by an Urban Knight, finishing under 21 minutes in fourth overall to lead the women's team to eighth while the men claimed 13th paced by sophomore
Vaughn Lacour.
Southern maintained top positioning throughout the 6k race, checking in at third midway through before ultimately taking fourth (three points toward team score) out of the 184-runner field at 20:58.6. The result made her the best Pacific West Conference finisher in the meet and bettered the program record originally held by the Urban Knights' first All-American Jenny Bergren who went 21:01.6 at
NCAA Division II Nationals in 2012.
"Today I wanted to go out a little faster than I'm comfortable with because Coach [Bruce] Jackson and I felt I was too conservative the last two meets I've ran," Southern said. "Around 4k into the race, I was feeling the fatigue start to creep in, but with the encouragement of my coaches and faith in my training, I kept pushing to keep my position. I'm very happy with the risks I took at the beginning of the race and how I was able to hold on. Running sub-21 minutes was not on my agenda for this meet, and seeing my time I was a little shocked, but I'm more motivated than ever for the rest of the season."
Scoring 12 points for Academy of Art with her own 6k personal record, redshirt sophomore
Katharina Goetschl ascended 16 spots a the race's halfway mark before ultimately taking 15th with a time of 21:38.6 that put her seventh in ART U program history. Junior
Lina Hanich was just off a 6k personal record, making moves up throughout including passing 11 competitors in the final third to claim 52nd (40 points toward team score) at 22:38.0 while sophomore
María Martín finished at 24:01.3 in 110th place (82 points toward team score) and junior
Michaela Andrews went 24:57.0 for a 137th place result (95 points toward team score).
The top PacWest team to finish, Academy of Art (232) placed eighth of 17 ahead of Point Loma (239) in 10th, Concordia (424) in 15th, and Hawaii Pacific (516) in 16th. Chico State (46) ended with the top collective score, but Chico State's Della Molina (20:57.0) was the top finisher from a NCAA DII school behind unattached runner Jennifer Sandoval (19:53.0) and UC San Diego's Isabelle Shepherd (20:52.4).
One of several men to make a strong push in the 8k race's final third, Lacour moved up to 128th (77 points toward team score) with a time of 27:40.5 across the finish line. He was closely followed by redshirt sophomore
Jaden Singleton in 130th (78 points toward team score) at 27:41.7 and freshman
Bradley Bell in 133rd (79 points toward team score) at 27:48.3. Taking 152nd (88 points toward team score) was graduate student
Samy Achab at 28:39.1 while sophomore
Taj-Leon Wisdom rounded out the ART U qualifiers with a 31:57.6 in 172nd (98 points toward team score).
The Urban Knights (426) were one of two PacWest squads in the race and their 13th place finish bettered that of Hawaii Pacific (458) in 15th. Chico State (27) captured the best team result led by Daniel Hernandez (24:27.4) in the first spot overall.
The two ART U cross country teams will have different competitions next as the men enter the SF State Invitational on Oct. 6 while the women will travel to Illinois for the Lewis Crossover Invitational on Oct. 7.
