BIG WEST CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS : Irvine Women’s Victory Expected; Men’s Is Not

UC Irvine won both the men’s and women’s divisions of the Big West Conference cross-country championships Saturday at Woodward Park.

The women, ranked fourth nationally, were favored to win their seventh conference title in the eight years it has been held, but the men’s victory, their fifth in six years, was an upset.

The Irvine men did not have a senior among their top seven runners and had lost to favored UC Santa Barbara and Fresno State at invitational meets. But six of seven finished in the top 17 to give Irvine a winning score of 41 points. Santa Barbara was second with 52 and Fresno third with 74. Cal State Fullerton was fifth with 103.

Jason Lienau of Fresno State finished first in the men’s division with a time of 25 minutes 2.2 seconds on the 8,000-meter course. Tim Corbin (25:05.1) of Santa Barbara was second.

Rob Price (25:11.5) finished third and Ben Ayers (25:15.8) was fourth for Irvine. Irvine’s other runners included Mike Nielson (seventh, 25:27.9), Brian Hild (13th, 25:40.4), Davie Hesseltine (14th, 25:43.0) and Kevin Berko (17th, 25:54.7).

Irvine’s women took five of the first six places and seven of the top 10 to finish first with 16 points, one short of a perfect score. Fresno was second with 54. The dropoff after that was a big one: Fullerton was third with 119.

Irvine’s Buffy Rabbitt, the individual favorite, was first with a time of 17:05.2 on the 5,000-meter course; she also won the title as a sophomore in 1987. Maria Akraka (17:19.2) was second, Rayna Cervantes (17:27.3) third and Traci Goodrich (17:29.9) fourth for Irvine. Cindy Rockwood-Amster broke up Irvine’s hopes for a sweep by running 17:42.0 for fifth.

Other Irvine finishers included Sita Jones (17:54.8) sixth, Roberta Momonez (18:13.0) eighth and Jade Preato (18:21.1) 10th.

Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle was named conference coach of the year for both teams. Rabbitt was named Big West runner of the year.