THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — After sending their first qualifier in over a decade to the NCAA Division III Nationals last year, the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen cross country program turns to a young group of athletes to step up in 2018.
"We're on the younger side. We graduated four seniors last year that were constantly in our top seven scoring for us. This year's team does not have a senior student-athlete on the roster. However, we have three juniors who have been on the team since their freshmen year, so they will be taking over the leadership role for the team this Fall.," said assistant coach Brett Halvaks, "It is very exciting to know that this current group of Kingsmen will be together for not only this year but next year as well."
Leading that young core is new team captain, Rigoberto Baza Carillo. The junior raced in five meets for Cal Lutheran last season and marked a 28:17.82 at the NCAA Division III West Regional Championships.
"He was our top 5K man on the track this last year and I'm hoping that transitions well into cross country. He had a great breakout year in both cross country and track last year, too, so I'm looking to him to build on that moving forward and lead this team."
Also looking to put up points for the Kingsmen are sophomores Nikita Khromets and Connor Neufeld-Griffin.
Khromets impressed as a freshman, finishing top three among his teammates in four of his six races. In addition, he was the fastest freshman for the Kingsmen on the NCAA West Region course where he marked his best finish of the year with a time of 27:18.2.
Neufeld-Griffin also caught attention at the SCIAC Multi-Duals last year with his best time of 28:40.22, finishing third amongst the team in his Cal Lutheran debut.
"I know that they will be amazing veteran leaders for the team this year and I am excited to watch this team bond and develop as a team throughout the year."
Looking up to them are the team's four incoming freshmen who will have their work cut out for them transitioning from running 5K in high school to the 8K in college.
"Stepping up to the 8K is getting close to doubling their race distance so it's going to be a process. They have to understand they may not knock it out the park the first time, but by SCIAC championships, they'll have three to four races under their belt and be ready to run well when it counts the most at the end of the year."
For Halvek and the Kingsmen, the upcoming season all comes down to October, "It's great to run well at the first couple of meets and get excited. But as long as were rested, ready and fit to run at the SCIAC Championships at the end of October and West Regionals two weeks later, that's the main goal – to have our best race at the end of the year and build off of that."
Men's cross country finished seventh in the SCIAC standings last season. They look to move up this season, starting with the Mark Covert Classic on Saturday, September 1.
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Release by Christy Effendie, Assistant Sports Information Director
