Oct. 19, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State men's and women's cross country teams both competed at the NCAA Pre-National meet Saturday with each team garnering an eighth-place team finish in their respective races. The meet, held annually at the site of that year's NCAA championships, brought the best teams in the nation to the Indiana State campus in Terre Haute, Ind. The men finished with 285 points in the blue race, won by Stanford (27 points), while the women's 254 points placed them seven spots behind Stanford's 57.
Individually for the Sun Devils, senior Fasil Bizuneh (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the men with his 13th-place finish while the women followed the 17th-place effort put forth by freshman Jessica Scalzo (Snoqualmie, Wash.). On the women's side, Amy Hastings (Leavenworth, Kan.) crossed the line in 35th with Desiree Davila (Chula Vista, Calif.), 43rd, Cynthia Atencio (Richland, Wash.), 75th, and Mandi Fitz-Gustafson (The Dalles, Ore.), 84th, rounded out the scoring for the team. Anna Masinelli (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Jessie McLaughlin (Olympia, Wash.), who ran the race but did not count towards the team's score, finished the circuit in 121st and 140th places, respectively.
For the men, freshman Aaron Aguayo (Phoenix, Ariz.) continued his string of strong finishes with a 35th-place finish. He was followed by JJ Duke (Clovis, Calif.), 44th, Ronnie Buchanan (Santa Maria, Calif.), 93rd, and Dan Maher (Tucson, Ariz.), 100th, to help the Sun devils accumulate 285 team points. Newcomers Ryan Warrenburg (Franklin, Ind.) and Pat Keller (Tempe, Ariz.) also competed in the race, finishing 114th and 171st, respectively.
The Sun Devils return to action in two weeks when both squads travel west to Pasadena, Calif., for the 2002 Pac-10 Championships, hosted by UCLA, Nov. 2.