Cal Poly women’s cross country team aims for repeat of 2015 success

Cal Poly’s Peyton Bilo hopes she won’t be traveling alone in late November.

The standout sophomore cross country runner was the lone Mustang to qualify for the NCAA championship meet last fall, having earned an individual at-large bid following a strong showing at regionals.

It was Bilo’s second-place finish at the Big West Conference championships that propelled Cal Poly to its fifth conference title since 2001, and she believes the 2016 version of the Mustangs could be even stronger.

She’ll find out one way or another when the Cal Poly men and women open the season at 11 a.m. Saturday at the UCSB Lagoon Open.

“I would love to have the opportunity to return to nationals this year,” said Bilo, the 2015 Big West Freshman of the Year. “But, I really just want to focus on helping my team get there as well with me. It’s always more fun when you have teammates traveling with you.”

While Bilo, who won a Big West title in the 10,000 meters in track last spring and finished second in the 5,000, will likely garner much of the individual attention this season, she’s one piece of the puzzle for a talented Cal Poly team.

Seniors Ashley Windsor (10th) and Mary Jo Wright (11th), junior Sydney Szabo (17th), and sophomores Katie Izzo (ninth) and Hannah Hull (23rd) all finished in the top-25 at the Big West meet a year ago, helping the Mustangs roll to a lopsided 20-point victory.

A group of seven true freshmen also joined the women’s team during training camp in August — among them Paso Robles High School graduate Ashley Davis — and Bilo said the newcomers fit right in.

“We have a few girls who are a little beat up right now from the summer training and coming off of injuries from track,” Bilo said. “I think, if we can get them healthy and we can keep the team together and keep pushing each other in workouts, I think we definitely could possibly qualify for nationals.”

On the men’s side, an experienced group of returners are hoping to improve on last year’s runner-up finish at the Big West championships.

Seniors Nick Woolf, Swarnjit Boyal, David Galvez, and sophomores Garrett Migliozzi, Devon Grove and Peter Cotsirilos all raced at the conference championship meet last fall. Led by Woolf’s fourth-place finish, the Mustangs placed three runners in the top 10.

Junior Clayton Hutchins — Cal Poly’s top finisher at the 2014 Big West meet — is coming off a redshirt year and will provided Cal Poly with added depth.

Boyal, who paced the Mustangs during the first four meets last season and won the Fresno State Invitational, said this group is particularly motivated to secure the men’s first conference title since the 2013 season.

“That’s what I came here to do and I feel like this is definitely the time,” Boyal said. “Not just to win it, but I feel like we should win it big. We’ve got a lot of returners from the top 10 last year, and we look poised and everyone’s hungry and that’s what I like to see from this team.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2016 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Cal Poly women’s cross country team aims for repeat of 2015 success."