RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Eight different Cal Lutheran Kingsmen set new lifetime personal records at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday morning, placing fourth out of seven Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams.
Nikita Khromets, Rigoberto Baza Carillo and Connor Neufeld-Griffin additionally joined an exclusive crowd of just 12 other men since 2008 who have completed the course in under 28 minutes with their performances at the UCR Agricultural Operations Course.
Khromets led the pack with a 27:29.3 in the 8K race, good for 83rd out of over 200 runners. Baza Carillo followed closely being at 27:45.7 for 92nd and Neufeld-Griffin rounded out the three at 27:56.3 for 99th.
Also finishing under the half hour mark, Henry Friederichs ran a 28:17.8 and crossed the line in 113th, Luke VanKeersbilck came in 150th with a 29:17.8 and Rudy Correa posted a 29.24.9 for 154th.
Joining them across the finish line, Jules Newberry came in at 31:03.2 (180th), Xavier Reynoso at 31:35.6 (185th), Dillan Barmache at 34:15.2 (193rd), Connor Richter at 35:48.9 (198th) and Aaron Rider at 38:18.8 (200th). On a significant note, freshmen Barmache shaved over two minutes from his last race time in just his second collegiate race.
Baza Carillo, Neufeld-Griffin, VanKeersblick, Correa, Newberry, Reynoso, Barmache and Richter all notched lifetime personal records, regardless of course, in the morning's event. Though Khromets and Friederichs didn't break their top marks, both also broke their times from last year's event.
The combined personal bests landed the team in fourth amongst other conference opponents with an overall team time of 2:20:46, beating out Redlands, Chapman and Caltech.
The team looks to improve their times again, next at the Master's Invitational on Saturday, September 29th. The races kick off at 7:45 a.m. PST at Master's Central Park.
Meet Results: UC Riverside Invitational
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Release by Christy Effendie, Assistant Sports Information Director
