Men's Results | Women's Results

BELMONT, Calif. – The Cal State East Bay cross country teams kicked off the 2011 campaign with a pair of quality performances at the Notre Dame de Namur Battle of the Bay in Belmont on Saturday. The Pioneer women placed third overall, while the men finished sixth on the trails at the Crystal Springs course to begin the first season under new Head Coach Ralph Jones.

“I am proud of both teams today and the spirit with which they competed with,” Jones said. “The transition to new coaches, new training and a different culture has been a challenge but the athletes came out and did what we asked them to do and that is compete.”

The women were led by Tiffany Duffy's 15th-place performance, as she clocked a time of 24:52 to beat out 56 other runners. Freshman Kaitlyn Smith followed close behind Duffy in her first race as a Pioneer, finishing in 25:02 to place 17th overall. Junior Amanda McNabb was just two seconds off Duffy's pace, taking 18th in a time of 25:06.

Junior Megan McDaniel and senior Gabriella Cruz also scored for the Pioneers, finishing in 30th and 34, respectively. Bernadette Lu rounded out the Cal State East Bay contingent clocking a time of 27:24 on the 6k course.

In the men's race, Erik Rodriguez paced the Pioneers with a 16th place finish in 23:03. Rodriguez took seven seconds off his team-leading time from last year at the Battle of the Bay. Sophomore Chris Gallagher followed at a 23:17 pace, taking 20th among the field of 44 competitors. Junior Joel Becker finished 30th, coming in at 24:09.

Scott Pallesen and John Vergara rounded out the Pioneer finishers in 25:47 and 26:20, respectively. Vergara took over two minutes off his time of 28:37 from the Battle of the Bay in 2010.

San Jose State, the only Division I program competing at the event, took the women's title with an average time of 23:43, finishing 13 points ahead of second-place San Francisco State. The Spartans Aylin Meija captured the individual title in a time of 23:12.

On the men's side, the Gators finished 29 points ahead of San Jose State to take home the men's team title. Hartnell's Cristian Soratos was the men's individual champion, finishing in 21:28.

“We have the first meet under our belt so now we have a benchmark to work from, and its time to go back to work and get better,” Jones said. “We always talk about investing in the future, and today we made an important deposit. We have several more deposits to make before we can start looking for a return. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Time to get back to work.”

Cal State East Bay returns to action in two weeks when it travels to Oakland for the Mills College Invitational on Sept. 17.