Sept. 21, 2002
Riverside, Calif - On a hot and dusty day in Riverside, Gaucho sophomore Desiree Leek used a dramatic late-race surge to lead her team to a 3rd-place finish at the UCR Invitational. In their first meet with the full squad competing the Gaucho women finished just 7 points behind the winner Utah State, besting conference rival UC Irvine and two-time defending champions Cal Poly.
Leek, a true sophomore from La Jolla (La Jolla HS), moved from 30th to 3rd in the final mile, leading a strong field of collegians across the line in 3rd, covering the near 5100 meter course in 18:37 (approximately 5:50 pace per mile). In just her second race of the year, Leek turned in another excellent early season outing, serving notice as a potential contender for the conference title in November.
With the Big West championships in Riverside this year, the meet served as a conference preview with many of the league's heavy-hitters on hand to test out the course. Ranked third in the Big West conference, the Gauchos turned out to be the surprise of the meet, nearly beating all of their conference competitors with an impressive display of come-from-behind racing. Behind Leek, freshman Lauren Christman (19:09) and senior Lisa Dunn (19:10) kicked in together in 16th and 17th respectively, with junior Vanessa Hernandez (20th, 19:13) and defending conference champion Katie Appenrodt (22nd, 19:15) rounding out the Gaucho scoring.
The Gauchos ran a team race from the start with a conservative early pace that would later pay big dividends in the near triple-digit heat. Running together in a large pack through 2 miles, the Gauchos unleashed an aggressive attack as the heat took its toll on the competitors, closing the gap dramatically.
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Other strong finishers for the Gauchos included freshman twin Lindsay Christman in 29th (19:21), and Phoenix, Arizona native Stephanie Rothstein (35th, 19:25).
The Gauchos will open the regular season next Saturday at the prestigious Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto. Held at the University golf course, the Gaucho women will look to garner potential NCAA at-large qualifying points from a national-caliber field, with the Women's 6k race set to go off at 4:50 pm.
