Karinauskaite earns first collegiate victory to lift Cal Baptist women over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps; Kiprop dominant in second straight win, as Fresno Pacific men take runner-up honors

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday turned out to be a day of fresh faces and international flavor among the top runners.

The constant at the UCR Ag-Ops Course was the domination by both Cal Baptist University cross country teams.

The CBU men placed five runners in the top 19, with sophomore and women’s individual winner Greta Karinauskaite leading a similar landslide victory as the hometown Lancers swept to victories.

Patrick Kiprop, a Fresno Pacific freshman, won individually in a rout, clocking a time of 23 minutes, 7.8 seconds on the 8-kilometer course.

Both CBU teams remained undefeated on the season, as the Lancers also swept to victories Sept. 1 at the UC Irvine Anteater Opener, though Saturday was a significantly larger field.

“We did a great job today as a team,” said Cal Baptist junior Floriam LePallec, who led the Lancers by placing second in 23:40.7, behind Kiprop.

Kiprop is originally from Kenya and was running in just his second cross country race. He was the Pac-West Conference runner-up last year in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and third in the 5,000 meters. He wasted no time in establishing control, taking a sizable lead in the men’s invitational race by the mile mark.

Kiprop blew away the previous 8-kilometer school record by almost a minute.

“My strategy was to just run and feel empty after the race,” Kiprop said.

Kiprop also won the Sunbirds’ first meet, the Fresno Invitational, on the 4-mile course at Woodward Park, a longer run but the same venue as the California high school state meet.

While Kiprop was essentially on his own with a big lead, the Cal Baptist men jockeyed for position behind him. For much of the race, the Lancers were 2-3-4 in placings, and they crossed the finish line with LePallec as the runner-up and senior Ivo Balabanov fourth in 23:50.6.

“The goal was basically to be in the first group and be there as long as we could,” LePallec said. “Today, the first guy (Kiprop) was better, but overall it was a great job.”

In fact, LePallec, who said he previously ran the UCR course in 25-minutes-plus, was cautioned not to try and keep up with Kiprop.

“I heard my coach saying, ‘Don’t go with him, stay there; you are good there,” LePallec said.

Arizona State junior Vincent Mauri finished third in 23:44.8. Fresno Pacific junior Xavier Smith was fifth in an 8-kilometer personal best by almost a minute of 23:52.9. Sophomore Bryan Banuelos gave Fresno Pacific a third runner in the top 10 by placing seventh in 24:07.3, and that helped the Sunbirds to second place as a team with 98 points to CBU’s 53.

“I saw that he pushed the front and I wanted to make sure that I could help as much as possible,” Smith said. “And I tried until I saw that it wasn't realistic.”

St. Mary’s senior Nolan Dozier was sixth in 24:05.7. Two Pomona-Pitzer runners, junior Ethan Widlansky (eighth, 24:10.8) and sophomore Lucas Florsheim (ninth, 24:12.4), paced the Sagehens to a third-place team finish with 121 points. Hawaii Pacific sophomore Jona Bodirsky rounded out the top 10 at 24:13.6.

On the women’s side, Karinauskaite hung back before taking the lead with about 2 kilometers to go and winning the 6-kilometer race in 20:19.0. The native of Lithuania was third at last year’s Western Athletic Conference Championships, and a runner-up in both the 5,000 and 3,000 steeplechases in track earlier this year.

Karinauskaite said she didn’t really employ a strategy Saturday. It was her first collegiate cross country win.

“I didn’t have a plan,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about anything. I just raced and wanted to do as best as I could.”

CBU's winning margin was 50-84 over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Arizona was third with 109.

Saturday’s individual runner-up was a familiar name, as UC Irvine junior Hannah Chau nearly caught Karinauskaite, running a time of 20:21.9.

“I knew they were running times I wanted to run, so I was like, ‘I was going to stick with them and feel out how I feel,’” said Chau, who also led the Anteaters to a fourth-place finish with 152 points. “And I just wanted to make sure that I was able to come to the 1-(kilometer) left (mark) with some power in my legs.

“I was really happy with the way the race was executed,” she added. “And you know, I just stayed calm, soaked it in, and was just happy to be back here and happy to be back.”

Arizona sophomore Grace Driskill led for some of Saturday’s race before settling for third in 20:28.4. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ top runner was junior Meredith Bloss in fourth at 20:31.0; senior teammate Riley Harmon was seventh in 20:37.6.

Fresno State freshman Elena Miezava was fifth in 20:35.8, while Sara Van Dyke of the Cal Coast Track Club was sixth in 20:36.8.

Rounding out the top 10 were St. Mary’s sophomore Rayna Stanziano (eighth, 20:38.1), Cal Baptist junior Anna Mate (ninth, 20:38.9) and Cal Coast’s Ashlee Powers, who was 10th in 20:41.2.

Saturday also featured two open races.

University of Antelope Valley senior Santiago Hardy won the men’s 8-kilometer race in 24:41.0, while Spaniard Natalia Ruiz Lara, a freshman from UNLV, won the women’s 5-kilometer race in 17:26.4.

For most, Saturday also marked a return to normalcy after nearly two years of pandemic-induced interruptions, stops and starts.

“It feels like the sun’s coming out, literally and figuratively,” Chau said. “It feels incredible.”