Results

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay men's cross country team placed seventh out of 16 teams in the Men's 8k Open at the 2014 Bronco Invitational, hosted by Santa Clara University at Baylands Regional Park on Saturday. It's the highest finish ever for the Pioneer men in four years competing in the event.

In their final tune-up before the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) championships next month, CSUEB finished just five points behind the sixth-place team, conference rival Cal State Monterey Bay.

Senior Will Weekes paced the team for the fourth time in as many meets. He ran the 8k course in 26:11.1 to take sixth place among collegiate runners in the Men's Open.

The next three Pioneers exhibited solid team running by finishing within 35 seconds of each other. Sophomore Irvin Parada had his strongest performance so far this fall, taking 27th place in a career-best time of 26:50.1. Freshman Latee Piggee finished in 35th in 27:02.8, and senior Daniel Damian placed 44th with a time of 27:26.6.

Freshman David Caballero completed the course in 28:36.7 and finished 73rd out of the 101 attached collegiate runners to close out CSUEB's day at Baylands Park.

"As a team we are continuing to improve, and we're seeing someone step up every week," said head coach Ralph Jones. "Saturday's top performer for us was Irvin Parada, who ran a lifetime best and had almost a two-minute improvement. Will is getting closer to the 25-minute mark, and the team gaps are getting tighter, which is allowing us to place higher in meets."

Cal State East Bay now has a couple weeks to prepare for the 2014 CCAA championships, which are being held in San Bernardino on Nov. 8.