CSUN’s Castro Posts 1st Collegiate Victory in Northridge Invitational

Like most cross-country runners, Jorge Castro has had his share of nagging injuries.

Castro, however, broke from the norm this summer when a forklift ran over his foot.

Saturday at Cal State Northridge, the Matador sophomore showed he has shaken the effects of that accident, running down Scott Pettersen of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a half-mile left in the 5-mile race to win the Northridge Invitational.

Castro’s time of 28 minutes, 18 seconds gave him his first collegiate victory.

“I came into the race real tired from this week’s workout,” Castro said. “Three guys from SLO and one from UCLA were ahead of me for most of the race. I was just patient and picked them off one at a time.”

San Luis Obispo won the 11-team men’s competition, placing 5 runners among the top 17 finishers. Sylvia Mosqueda, formerly of Cal State Los Angeles and running independently, won the women’s 5,000-meter event in 18:46.

Gena Jauregui of Cal State Northridge was the highest collegiate finisher, clocking 20:40 to place fifth. UCLA won the women’s collegiate competition with 5 runners finishing in the top 16.

Fernando Fernandez was Northridge’s second finisher, placing 20th (30:45) in the 57-man field. Mike Callahan (30:54, 23rd), Sasha Vujic (31:25, 25th) and Bob Evans (32:02, 30th) rounded out the CSUN scoring.

Georgia McLean of Northridge ran 21:23 to finish 10th in the women’s race out of 39 runners. Heather Houston (22:50, 22nd), Deborah Binnall (23:09, 24th) and Naz Arain (23:45, 25th) also scored for CSUN.