No glory for cross country at Pac-12 championship

There wasn’t much glory for the Trojans, who finished dead last at the Pac-12 cross country championship in Riverside on Friday.

The last four runners to finish in the 105-person field were Trojans. One runner dropped out because of ankle pain and the team’s highest-placing athlete, freshman Lucy Westlake, finished in 78th place. A good portion of the team’s veterans didn’t suit up at all, sidelined by illness and injury.

“You can’t control the uncontrollables,” Coach Jebreh Harris said. “We’re gaining some experience.”

It was fairly clear what the day would hold from the onset of the gun.

The Trojans found themselves boxed to the back of a relatively tight pack at the quarter mile mark, mixing it up with trailing runners from Arizona State and California. By the 2k split, the race began to string out, with Westlake and fellow freshman Ashlee Gallegos crossing the mat side-by-side in 83rd place.

Somewhere between the 2k and 4k marks, sophomore Maya Lacamp — who ran at the NCAA West Regional last year — hobbled off the course with a twisted ankle. Meanwhile on the deceptively steep course, Westlake pushed to gain seven places, crossing the 4k line in 76th place with Gallegos following some 30 seconds later.

Westlake finished the day with a 78th place, 21:37 6k followed by Gallegos in 92nd, sophomore Vienna Gao in 97th, senior Janiah Brown in 101st, senior Brooke Rodi in 102nd, redshirt freshman Jacqueline Duarte in 103rd and sophomore Giovanna Pisano in 104th. Both Westlake and Gao — who earned a spot on the team this year in a tryout — set new 6k personal bests.

In the two meets she’s run this season, Westlake has finished first for the Trojans; Gallegos led the charge at the last regular season race, when Westlake didn’t run.

“The athletes who were out there today stepped up because other teammates were not able to come out and compete,” Harris said. “People stood up for each other when other teammates were down.”

This year’s Pac-12 finish wasn’t much of an anomaly for a program that has historically finished at the bottom of the Pac-12; the squad was, as per usual, outclassed by the likes of Colorado, Oregon and Stanford — powerhouse distance programs in one of the strongest conferences in the NCAA.

Colorado won the meet on a tie breaker with Utah, followed by, in order of rank: Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Oregon State, Washington State, UCLA, Arizona, California, Arizona State and USC.