Results | Team Scores

BILLINGS, Mont. -- The Cal State East Bay men's cross country team capped off its historic 2016 season with a 17th place finish at the NCAA Division II West Regionals, which were hosted by Montana State Billings at the 10k course at Amend Park on Saturday morning.

It's the highest finish for the Pioneers at West Regionals since the program rejoined NCAA Division II in 2009, and it's six spots better than the team's 23rd place finish in 2015.

Much like the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championships, East Bay's performance today signaled an enormous improvement over the course of just one season. Last year, Israel Sotelo was CSUEB's top runner at West Regionals, taking 114th place. This morning at just over 3,000 feet above sea level, four Pioneer runners finished in the top 114. 

Junior Chris Lessard paced the squad with a phenomenal effort to finish 43rd out of 168 runners. He crossed the finish line in 31:23.33, the 19th fastest time among CCAA runners in the field. Freshman Pedro Cruz also turned in an outstanding performance at his first NCAA meet, placing 57th with a time of 31:54.05.

Lessard is the program's highest finisher at NCAA Regionals during the CCAA era. And before he and Cruz did it today, the Pioneers had never had a runner finish the West Regional 10k in under 32 minutes. 

Alberto Venegas was the team's third finisher in 104th place, completing the course in 33:03.52. Sotelo ended up in the exact same position as last year, taking 114th with a time of 33:13.07.

Leo Skellenger -- the third freshman among East Bay's five scoring runners -- ran a gutsy race, battling an injury to finish 134th. His time of 33:52.01 was crucial for the Pioneers as they edged out both Dixie State and Cal State Monterey Bay in the team standings. 

Freshman Deion Molina (34:53.75) and fellow rookie Christian Moncada (35:00.45) placed 152nd and 153rd, respectively, to close out a memorable morning for the Pioneers.

Chico State captured the West Region championship behind the top three individual finishers. Alaska Anchorage, Cal Poly Pomona, Academy of Art, and Cal Baptist rounded out the top five and advanced to NCAA National Championships along with the Wildcats.

The cross country season is now over for Cal State East Bay, but the inspiring performances by an extremely young group of Pioneers this Fall provide tremendous promise for the future of the program.