Kleinsasser still SCIAC’s best
GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.
Eric Kleinsasser (Crescenta Valley, 2007) junior, Occidental College cross-country: When it comes to the best of the best in the Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference, Kleinsasser once more claimed that title.
For a third-straight season, Kleinsasser won the SCIAC championship and was subsequently named the conference’s athlete of the week and runner of the year.
The former Falcons standout, who had been battling an injury for most of the year, won the 8,000-meter race in 25 minutes 53.23 seconds in Chino, leading Occidental to a third-place standing.
He won the SCIAC championship run by better than a five-second margin.
In the women’s championship 6K race, Flintridge Prep graduate Dot Silverman took 31st in 24:54.19 for Pomona-Pitzer, which took fifth as a team.
Oxy and the Tigers will race again on Saturday in the West Regionals in Oregon.
Rosa Del Toro (Glendale Community College, 2010) junior, Long Beach State cross-country: Del Toro was once more the top runner for Long Beach State, finishing ninth in the Big West Conference Championships on Oct. 30 in Riverside.
Del Toro’s ninth-place mark in the 6,000-meter race in a personal-best 20 minutes 56.6 seconds came as Long Beach finished third as a team.
Del Toro’s teammate, Nina Moore, who also ran at GCC, was the team’s No. 5 runner, taking 22nd in 21:28.8.
Long Beach State will run again on Saturday at the NCAA West Regional in Oregon.
Former GCC runner Zitalic Ley also took part in the Big West championships, finishing 47th overall in 22:24. Ley was the No. 2 finisher for Cal State Northridge, which was the eighth-place team in the meet.
UC Irvine finished sixth, with Crescenta Valley High graduates Carlotta Pham and Shelby Pock taking part. Pham was 48th in 22:26.1 and Pock was 53rd in 22:45.9.
Cristina Lucas (Glendale resident) sophomore, Wellesley College cross-country: Lucas garnered All-New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference honors with a ninth-place finish at the NEWMAC Cross-Country Championships on Oct. 30 in Massachusetts.
Lucas finished the women’s 5,000 in 19:11.60 as her team’s No. 4 finisher. Despite tallying 31 points, Wellesley took second behind MIT’s 24-point tally.
Dietrich Riley (St. Francis High, 2010) freshman safety, UCLA football: UCLA continued its season full of ups and downs with an upset over Oregon State and the former Golden Knights standout contributed two tackles in the game.
The Bruins won, 17-14, on the strength of a Kai Forbath 51-yard field goal as time expired on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.
Riley, who’s played primarily special teams this season, has played in eight of his team’s nine games and tallied 13 tackles, 10 of them solo.
Up next for Riley, a former three-time All-Area Football Player of the Year, and the Bruins (4-5, 2-4 in conference) is a bye week before traveling to face Washington on the road Nov. 18.
Zack Torres (Crescenta Valley High, 2009) sophomore, UCLA cross-country: Torres, who was twice voted News-Press Boys’ Athlete of the Year as a Falcon, was the No. 6 runner for UCLA and the 33rd overall finisher in the Pacific-10 Championships 8,000-meters race on Oct. 30 in Seattle.
Torres clocked a time of 24:21.22.
Torres and the Bruins will return to the course for the NCAA West Regional on Saturday in Oregon.
Brian Trejo (Hoover High, 2009) sophomore, San Francisco State cross-country: As he’s done all season, the former Tornadoes All-Area runner led his team, finishing 16th on Saturday at the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Championships at Whittier Narrows Regional Park in South El Monte.
Trejo finished the 8K race in a personal-best time of 25:29.2.
San Francisco State finished fourth in the seven-team meet.
In the women’s 6K meet, former Glendale Community College standout Justina Sadauskaite, now running for Cal State Los Angeles, took 19th in 22:53.2. Cal State L.A. finished fourth, with Sadauskaite leading the way.
Up next for both locals runners and their teams is a trip to Washington for the NCAA Division II West Regional Championships on Nov. 20.