Following disappointing Pac-12 performance last season, Wildcats show potential on Ag-Ops course, site of championship this fall; Cal Poly gets good tuneup for Big West final, with Fick and Mauri both producing strong improvements from last year 

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

It might be ambitious to call Saturday's 41st UC Riverside Invitational a preview meet for the Pacific-12 Conference or the Big West, both with conference championships scheduled for the Ag-Ops course in October.

But the University of Arizona women treated the event as such and it paid dividends while also serving notice the Wildcats might be a program to watch in 2022.

Arizona pulled a one-point upset Saturday of perennial Big West power Cal Poly, tallying 140 points to the Mustangs' 141. Third-place Southern Utah scored 149.

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Long Beach State senior Ryley Fick earned the individual victory on the Ag-Ops' 6-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 7.5 seconds.

Cal Poly did win on the men's side with 59 points, while second-place Southern Utah completed a strong, overall showing with 90 points.

Arizona State junior Vincent Mauri, a third-place finisher at the meet a year ago and an NCAA outdoor finalist in the 5,000 meters, outlegged Cal Poly sophomore Aidan McCarthy to win the invitational 8-kilometer race in 23:25.7.

Arizona's women finished 12th at last year's Pac-12 Championships, but showed renewed vigor Saturday, led by Driskill, an Arizona high school state champion in the 1,600 and 3,200 just three years ago.

"It's big," she said. "You know, this is our first team win in a big invite. We won last year, like a home meet, but it's just a few schools. This is a big deal for us."

On a very un-Tucson-like day, where clouds didn't burn off in California's Inland Empire until noon and temperatures at race time hovered around 60 degrees, Driskill ran to a strong 10th place in 20:35.1.

A pair of freshmen were next with Ericka Cunniam 14th in 20:40.9 and Mia Chavez, a top-five high school finisher in California Division 3 last year from nearby Chino, was 21st in 20:51.5. Sophomore Johnnie Mitchell (42nd, 21:18) and junior Sailor Hutton (59th, 21:29.5) rounded out the Wildcats' scoring.

Driskill said Wildcats' coach Bernard Lagat talked to the Arizona women Friday night about strategy and said the goal was to simply win.

"I just think we actually took that to heart," Driskill said. "Sometimes, you can say, 'I'm going to win, or my team is going to win. If you don't actually mean it, it's not going to happen."

Driskill spoke of a mentality of picking off fellow runners, one by one, if she had to.

"You just hunt them," she said. "It's like you're a lion; you're just getting each one."

The team competition was tight for the women, with just nine points separating the top three. UC Irvine was fourth in 181; UC Santa Barbara was fifth with 190.

The women's invitational race also had some strong individual performances from teams that didn't carry the momentum throughout their scoring lineup.

Seventh-place Long Beach State had two of the top four finishers in Fick and sophomore Allie Scimia (fourth, 20:16.5). Fick, who simply outlasted the other challengers in the front pack, surprised herself by winning with a mark that set a program record for 6 kilometers.

"Coming into this race, I had really good workouts to back it up, so I was expecting something big, kind of hoping for the 20:30-range, and I definitely wanted to put myself into contention to win," Fick said. "I wasn't expecting to feel that good. I think I kind of surprised myself a little bit."

UC Davis had similar results. The Aggies went 2-3-5 in the women's invitational race, yet finished eighth.

Junior Sierra Atkins was the runner-up to Fick in 20:14.7, sophomore Brianna Weidler, a former Great Oak High standout and one-time resident of Riverside, was third in 20:16.1, and sophomore Maddie Kackley placed fifth in 20:19.1.

Utah Tech junior Grace McLaughlin was sixth in 20:22.8. Then came UC Irvine's top two runners, sophomores Anna Vogtmann (seventh, 20:24.6) and Sameen Andar (eighth, 20:26.5), followed by sophomore Collette Lowengrub from host UC Riverside in ninth (20:31.1). She led the Highlanders to a sixth-place showing with 238 points.

Mauri said the Sun Devils' attitude toward Saturday was to train through the UCR meet while familiarizing themselves with Ag-Ops layout. His win over McCarthy was substantial, by 20 seconds.

"Our whole thing today was we didn't want to be super fit," said Mauri, a reference to the meet's early running on the schedule.

"At the end of the day, it's Pac-12s and regionals. So we have a couple of workouts under our belts, but today was just kind of a chance to get around some people and get a hard workout in, not bending our knees at the end, but just a little tired enough where it's like, 'Hey, we get a little race in, a hard workout.'

"I think we executed pretty well. Should be a fun year."

Cal Poly's win came on the strength of the four runners in the top 17. Behind McCarthy was Nevada native and junior William Fallini-Haas (fourth, 23:49.8), sophomore Anthony Guerra (13th, 24:08.2) and sophomore Rory Smail (17th, 24:12.3).

"We're kind of focusing on feeling good for an 8K, so were doing longer tempo, and stuff like that," McCarthy said. "So I think we were pretty well prepared for this. Obviously, it's pretty early in the season, though. Still a lot of work to do, but this is a good start, for sure."

Junior Travis Feeny paced Southern Utah, which shined in the midst of its more well-known opponents.

Feeny was fifth in the men's invitational in 23:55.4 as the Southern Utah men placed second. He was also fifth a year ago.

Running unattached, Ayrton Ledesma Fuentes placed third in 23:47.2.

Fresno Pacific senior Xavier Smith, also a top-10 finisher a year ago, was sixth in 23:58.6.

Rounding out the top 10 was Arizona freshman Ian Sanchez Lopez (seventh, 24:01.1.), senior Brint Laubach of The Master's College (eighth, 24:01.8), Long Beach State junior Michael Phillips (ninth, 24:02.1) and Southern Utah senior Isaiah Labra (10th, 24:03.2).