Peyton Bilo, Clayton Hutchins lead Cal Poly cross country at NCAA West Regionals
Peyton Bilo positioned herself nicely for to a second straight NCAA Championships trip with a ninth-place finish Friday at the NCAA West Regional Cross Country Meet in Sacramento, while leading Cal Poly to a 10th-place team finish.
The Mustang men placed ninth on the strength of Clayton Hutchins’ 13th-place finish, also a mark worthy of a trip to the NCAA Championships. Both Bilo and Hutchins will now await at-large invites, which are announced Saturday, to the championships Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Bilo navigated the 6K course at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in 19 minutes, 45.9 seconds. Washington’s Amy-Eloise Neale placed first with a time of 19:27.8. No. 7-ranked Stanford upset No. 4 Washington for top team honors, 71-88 atop the 35 squads. Both schools secured the two automatic full bids to the NCAA Championships.
The sophomore Bilo, coming off her Big West Championships victory last week and a 12th-place finish in last year’s NCAA West meet, climbed as the course progressed amid partly cloudy, slightly humid weather, getting out to a 28th-place pace of 5:41.8 through the first split, moving up to 17th at 9:32.1 by the second split and then taking the ninth-place position at 14:51.2 by the third.
Senior Ashley Windsor was the next Mustang in, finishing 44th at 20:36.2, just ahead of freshman teammate Cate Ratliff in 48th at 20:41.2.
Also for Cal Poly, junior Molly Haar came in 66th place among the field of 238 with a time of 21:03.3, followed by freshman Morgin Coonfield in 115th at 21:49.1 and sophomore Julia Vasquez in 128th at 21:57.8.
In the men’s 10K, Hutchins turned in a time of 29:56.4. Oregon’s Edward Cheserek led the way in a time of 29:23.7. Stanford won the team title, edging Portland 75-90.
Similar to Bilo, redshirt junior Hutchins — the Big West men’s champion — also steadily moved up throughout, opening with a pace of 5:05.3 for the 28th spot after the first split, elevating to 18th at the second split (8:34.7), 16th by the third (15:23.8), and then assuming 13th by the fourth (18:51.5).
Junior teammate Alex Heuchert was next in, running a 45th-place 30:35.4, just ahead of senior Swarnjit Boyal’s 51st-place 30:44.4.
Meanwhile at his first collegiate regional, Mustang freshman Justin Robison came in 56th place with a performance of 30:46.0.
Sophomore Mikey Giguere added a 62nd-place time of 30:50.3 for the Mustangs, followed by freshman Chas Cook in 77th at 31:21.2 and sophomore Peter Cotsirilos in 110th at 32:07.5.
Stanford, ranked No. 4 in the country, tallied 75 points to win over No. 12 Portland’s 90, as the Pilots upstaged UCLA and Oregon to join the Cardinal in automatically advancing to the national championships. Oregon senior Edward Cheserek, however, won individually at 29:23.7.
An NCAA committee will select the 13 additional teams and two individuals from around the nation’s nine respective regions as part of the 31 squads and 255 individuals that will compete in the championships.
This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Peyton Bilo, Clayton Hutchins lead Cal Poly cross country at NCAA West Regionals."