Otters Bring Home More Hardware At Sonoma Invite

Otters Bring Home More Hardware At Sonoma Invite
Hannah Bell leads women to team victory, Ben Garland wins men's title

Ben Garland (244) ended up beating Domincan’s Justin Valdez (258) by more than 15 seconds while winning the individual title at Sonoma Saturday morning.By Kevin Gilmore
September 21, 2013


SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Hannah rung the bell, Ben wore the garland and the Cal State Monterey Bay men's and women's cross country teams added more hardware to the trophy case Saturday at the Sonoma State University Invitational.

Rain made for treacherous racing conditions at Spring Lake Regional Park in Santa Rosa, but it didn't stop sophomore Hannah Bell (Yorba Linda/Esperanza HS) from leading the Otter women to the team title with her first collegiate race win, nor did it slow down senior Ben Garland (Santa Cruz/Harbor HS) from earning his first race win at the collegiate level.

"There were two big factors today: A slippery course and big rain," said CSUMB Head Coach Greg Rhines. "It made no difference. Both Hannah and Ben enjoyed their first wins. An added bonus was the women's team winning the meet.

"Every member on the team had influence in today's result and it is showing more and more in each race."

Bell led another strong effort by the Otter top three, who seem to thrive off the internal competition, taking turns topping each other every race. Bell finished in a time of 22.22.73, besting teammate and runner–up Jessica McIntyre (Los Alamitos HS) by nearly 13 seconds. Junior Jennie Yeaman (Escondido/Mission Hills HS), who picked up her first collegiate win three weeks back at the Crystal Springs Invitational, placed fourth at 23.24.60.

Cristina Hernandez (San Diego/Bonita Vista HS) and Alix Quenneville (Huntington Beach/Edison HS) rounded out the scoring for CSUMB by placing 18th and 20th respectively.

On the men's side, Garland continues to distance himself from the pack as arguably the top harrier in Otter cross country history. He held off a strong challenge from Tyler Holt of UC Santa Cruz to win with a time of 26:01.07. Freshman Connor Henderson (South Lake Tahoe HS) earned his second Top 10 finish of the season by placing sixth.

CSUMB also got Top 20 finishes from freshman Ryan Torres (Ripon HS) (14th) and junior Karson Hayden (Huntington Beach/Servite HS) (16th). Dan Metzger (Reno, Nev./Galena HS) and Logan Coe (Lafayette/Campolindo HS) just missed the Top 20, placing 21st and 23rd in the 43 runner field.

The Otters will take a well–earned rest next weekend before returning to action Oct. 5 at the Stanislaus Invitational in Turlock.





GO OTTERS!