SAN MARCOS, Calif. – Jared Wright led the way for Dominican cross country at the CSUSM Cougar Challenge as he finished 16th in the field of 206 runners at the Champions Course.

"Quite the race for our top 3 men," head coach Teressa DiPerna said. "We raced against some top D2 and D3 teams. Pomona Pitzer is No. 1 in D3, Chico state is No. 5 in D2 with Cal Poly Pomona No. 17 among some of our PacWest competition. We ran in desert like conditions and had two men drop out due to lower leg issues."  

Wright maintained a consistent pace throughout the 8k as he covered his first 2,000 meters in 4:54.3 setting in the large pack leading the race. Wright continued to stay with the leading pack over the next two splits sitting nine seconds back of the leader entering the final stretch. Wright was in a tight race with Ian Horsburgh and Owen Kobett of Pomona-Pitzer down the stretch as they also tried to stay ahead of a late charge from Thomas McDonnell of Cal Poly Pomona. Wright crossed the line in 24:52.3 to take 16th, four seconds ahead of McDonnell who moved up six spots in the final split of the race. 

Jacob Potere and Stefan Mueller continued to race together throughout the race and found themselves moving up with Travis Selby over the final 2,000 meters of the race. Potere and Mueller sprinted past Chris Razo of CPP at the chute to finish back-to-back. Potere crossed the line first by mere inches ahead of Mueller to finish 47th with Mueller in 48th both with times of 25:52.2 both were 0.3 seconds ahead of Razo. Cisco Gonzalez rounded out the field for the Dominican men as he finished in 32:48.3 to finish ahead of Jordan Ostby of Caltech for 201st.

Mary Jo Gallegos continued to lead the way for the Dominican women as she passed up Luca Burns of Point Loma in the final split to finish 147th in the 6k with a time of 26:25.2. Bella Bueno, racing in the first cross country race of her collegiate career, was the next to cross for the Penguins as she moved up nine spots in the final stretch. Bueno passed fellow PacWest runners Hannah Faust of Concordia University Irvine and Jenna Bernath of Point Loma down the stretch to finish 157th in the field of 196 runners with a time of 26:25.0.

Sophia Zertuche also made a late push for Dominican as she moved up seven spots and was in hot pursuit of PLNU's Hannah Thomas but finished 0.2 seconds behind her in 173rd with a time of 28:08.5. Sienna Fassett was not far behind as she crossed the line in 28:40.0 to round out the finishers for the Penguins.

"Mary and Sophia had their best times today and Mary moved up to No. 19 on our top times in the 6k at DU," DiPerna said.  "Bella did a great job in her debut."

Dominican will have a few weeks to recover before its next race as it competes at the San Francisco State Invitational on Friday, October 7 at Golden Gate Park.