Beressa Leads CSU San Marcos Men's Cross-Country to A.I.I. Conference Championship
November 7, 2009

Muluken Beressa's school-record performance proved to be just the bump that CSU San Marcos needed, as the Cougar men's cross-country team pulled a mild upside by winning the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Cross-Country Conference Championships on Saturday.

The race, held at Cal State San Marcos, featured a talented five team field, including #5 British Columbia, #7 CSU San Marcos, and #12 Simon Fraser.  Soka University and Johnson & Wales also competed, and Southwestern College sent three runners.

In a battle that went all the way down to the wire, CSU San Marcos pulled out the narrow victory, with their team score of 39 narrowly edging Simon Fraser's 41.  British Columbia was close behind but settled for third place with a 44.  Soka finished fourth with 131, and Johnson & Wales took fifth with 135 points.

Early on, a group of three runners - Kevin Friesen from Simon Fraser, and Dave Edwards and Beressa from CSU San Marcos - separated themselves from the pack, and would continue to pull ahead as the race progressed.  Edwards fell back in the final mile, leaving Friesen and Beressa neck-and-neck for the last few hundred meters of the race.  Cheered on by a raucous home crowd, Beressa prevailed, crossing the finish line with a time of 24:14.  Friesen would finish one second behind at 24:15.

Beressa's time breaks the CSUSM school record, previously set by Juan Mejia in 2007, by one second as well.

Edwards cruised to a third place finish in the meet at 24:42.  Simon Fraser's Ryan Brockerville took fourth at 24:53, and British Columbia runners Kerry Kazuta and Ben Thistlewood placed fifth and sixth, running 24:54 and 25:06, respectively.

CSUSM's top-5 runners all finished in the top-17 at the meet.  Chris Capeau placed 8^th at 25:20, Pat Fitzgerald 10^th at 25:23, and Chris Strasheim 27^th at 26:27.

Simon Fraser saw Keir Forester take 7^th at 25:18, David Wambui place 12^th at 25:28, and Mitchell Culley take 16^th at 26:14.  CSUSM's team time was a mere two seconds faster than Simon Fraser's, 2:06:06 to 2:06:08.

British Columbia had Jordan Smith take 9^th at 25:23, Nigel Hole place 11^th with a 25:27, and Eric Cameron finish 13^th at 25:45.

Following the completion of the race, there were tense moments as the results were calculated.  When the underdog Cougars were announced the winner, both the crowd and team exploded in cheers.

CSU San Marcos coach Steve Scott was named A.I.I. Coach of the Year following the race, and the top-10 individual finishers were named to the All-Conference Team.  CSU San Marcos earns the conference's automatic bid to Nationals on November 21^st in Vancouver, Washington, where the team will look to improve on last year's 12^th place finish.