Posted: Sep 24, 2018
September 24, 2018
Written by Eric Barron--Cross Country Coach
Coming as the third race of the season for the Santa Monica Men's Cross Country team, the Golden West Invitational was a Goldilocks course. After the opening hilly course and the second flat course, this was a fair cross country course with flat opening and closing miles sandwiching two miles of tricky hills. Leonard MacComas handled the mix well. He paced himself smartly, and was 25th at the mile mark.
At the two miles mark, he moved up to 12th place, and from mile three to the finish, he held onto fourth place. Next to cross the line for the Corsairs, Omar Vargas and Balmore Montes continue to gain experience and look stronger. Eager to race after a week of rest, Michael Bardales ran an aggressive first mile, but suffered severe quad cramps in the last mile. Chris Church-Bryant and Gabriel Lodato also put in solid efforts with season-best opening miles. Similarly, Giovanni Policarpo and Yulong Sun ran the first mile not only faster than in a race, but faster than anything they have done in practice.