Orange County Roundup : UCI’s Cross-Country Teams Travel to Palo Alto

UC Irvine will meet several of the nation’s top men’s and women’s cross-country teams at the Stanford Invitational at Palo Alto Saturday.

The Anteater women, ranked 12th in the nation after they won the Aztec Invitational at San Diego State Saturday, are led by senior Jill Harrington, the defending PCAA champion, sophomore Buffy Rabbitt and junior Beth McGrann.

The women’s invitational field includes third-ranked Texas, Clemson (fourth), Brigham Young (eighth), Arkansas (ninth), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (10th), UCLA (16th), Arizona State, Fresno State and the defending meet champion, Stanford.

The UCI men’s team was runner-up to San Diego State at the Aztec Invitational. The men’s invitational field includes Stanford, San Diego State, Nebraska, Cal State Los Angeles, BYU and Cal State Fullerton.

The meet begins at 9 a.m. with the men’s open division 10,000 meters. The women’s invitational 5,000-meter race starts at 10:30 a.m., followed by the men’s invitational 10,000 meters at 11.

The Corona del Mar High School boys’ cross-country team, top-ranked in the Southern Section 4-A Division, will travel to Palo Alto to compete in the high school division of the Stanford Invitational on Monday.

The high school races, featuring 56 boys’ and 51 girls’ teams from California and Oregon, are divided into three divisions based on school enrollment: small (800 or fewer), medium (801-1,600) and large (more than 1,600).

Corona del Mar, competing in the large-school division race starting at 4:15 p.m., will face competition from Arroyo, the top-ranked team in the Southern Section 3-A.

Arroyo defeated Corona del Mar by 1 1/2 minutes at the Woodbridge Invitational three weeks ago and is considered to be a slight favorite at Stanford.

Other top teams include Clovis West of Fresno, L.A. Loyola, Hart, El Cerrito, Oxnard and Bend High of Oregon.

The Sea Kings are led by junior Eddie LaValle, who set a course record of 14 minutes 35 seconds at the Dana Hills Invitational Saturday; senior Jim Robbins (14:44), and Greg Shyrock (14:58).