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Pouring rain and biting wind
isn’t exactly the image of ideal running weather, but that didn’t
matter to Juan Mejia and Leo Elorza on Sunday. Competing in the
rain-soaked Surf City Half-Marathon, the two Cougar runners posted
times good enough to qualify for the marathon at May’s NAIA National
Championships.
“They ran times that I was hoping they’d run in great weather,”
commented an impressed Coach Steve Scott.
Mejia finished 13th in the race, with a time of 1:08.48. That’s
comfortably ahead of the NAIA “A-Standard” of 1:15, thus qualifying
him for Nationals. Elorza was not far behind, finishing in 1:12.38,
good for 26th place at the event. He’ll join Mejia in representing
CSUSM at Nationals.
“I knew Leo could run 1:12 in good weather,” noted Coach Scott. “But
for him to do it in those conditions is really something.”
Prior to the race, Coach Scott went over his race plan with Mejia.
Due to the conditions, Scott told Mejia, who is one of (if not the)
most accomplished runners in CSUSM history, to hang back and run
with Elorza. But Mejia sprinted ahead after the first mile, and it
turns out Elorza didn’t need the help.
On the women’s side, Sin Carrano was also planning to run, but came
down with an illness and was held out of the race by Coach Scott.
She’ll take her shot at qualifying on February 17th at the Palm
Spring Half Marathon.
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