Occidental Runs Away With Honors in Regional

Occidental College cross-country runners Marcial Beltran and Laurie Schuster held back in the early going in the NCAA Division III Far West regional Saturday but for different reasons.

Both runners, however, emerged victorious in guiding the Tigers to the men’s and women’s team titles at Bonelli Park in San Dimas.

Beltran covered the five miles in a course-record 26 minutes 4 seconds in leading an Occidental sweep of the first three places. Beltran’s mark, his fourth course record of the season, shattered the previous standard of 26:49 set by Redland’s Toby Wagner in 1989.

Occidental’s Emmet Hogan and Jose Garcia placed second and third in identical times of 26:29 and Konstantine Kindreich (27:14) and Mike Anker (27:34) finished seventh and 10th as the Tigers easily won the team competition with 23 points.

UC San Diego was second with 86, followed by Whittier (94), Pomona-Pitzer (113) and Redlands (117).

Schuster won the women’s 5,000-meter race in 18:02, holding off Menlo’s Donna McKennon (18:12) and Pomona-Pitzer’s Kelly Redfield (18:13).

Becky Kopchik (18:44) and Nancy McKrell (19:26) placed sixth and eighth as Occidental won the team title with 39 points, edging UC San Diego (51) and Pomona-Pitzer (59).

Andrea Karamitsos (19:33) and Jeanise Eisenman (19:39) finished 11th and 13th to round out the Occidental scoring.

The first two men’s teams and the top women’s team qualified for Saturday’s national meet in Grinnell, Iowa.

The Occidental men will be making their seventh trip in the past nine years, and the women have qualified six times during that span.

Beltran was content to let Claremont’s Brian Barnes lead through the steep, hilly segments early in the men’s race before taking command when the course leveled out at the three-mile mark.

“I just wanted to concentrate on keeping my stride short and my arms pumping up the hills,” said Beltran, undefeated in Division III this season. “When we got to the flat, I just got my stride in rhythm and went. I knew I had it won.”

Schuster was in sixth after the first mile but took the lead when the course flattened a half-mile later.

“I didn’t want to start that far back,” said Schuster, who placed third in last year’s regional meet. “I got boxed in and couldn’t pass anybody because the trail was too narrow, but everything worked out in the end.”