SAN FRANCISCO -- The Cal State East Bay men's cross country team traveled across the Bay Saturday morning to open the 2016 season at the San Francisco Invitational. The Pioneers sent 15 runners to compete at Golden Gate Park, who turned in the program's most promising performance since re-gaining membership in NCAA Division II.

CSUEB took second place out of the three Division II teams at the meet, handily defeating Holy Names and falling just nine points short of Academy of Art, the No. 7 ranked team in the West Region. Their deficit might have been just one point, but the Pioneers had two of their top six finishers competing unattached. 

East Bay also had the opportunity to race against seven Division I teams, including Cal, which won the meet, and Stanford, the No. 4 team in the nation. Although the non-Division I scoring was done separately, the Pioneers were essentially dead even with DI Cal State Northridge. 

Head coach Tony Nicolosi was excited about his team's morning. "This was a big day for us to open with," he noted. "We ran this course more than 1:20 faster on average than we did last year at the conference championships here."

A trio of newcomers paced the Pioneers in the 8k race. Junior Chris Lessard finished 46th overall and second among Division II runners with a time of 25:51.1. He's the first CSUEB runner to run an 8k in under 26 minutes in competition in the CCAA era. 

Freshman Pedro Cruz was impressive in his East Bay debut as well, placing fifth among DII runners in 26:13.0. Fellow rookie Christian Moncada was the team's third finisher, competing unattached, as he crossed the finish line in 26:31.0. He ran with the team's top returner, sophomore Israel Sotelo, who finished sixth among Division II runners with a time of 26:31.2. 

Freshman Deion Molina ran the Speedway Meadows course in 26:41.6, putting him fifth overall on the team and eighth among attached DII runners. Freshman Leo Skellenger ran unattached and checked in at 26:46.0.

Freshman Miguel Morales finished 13th among DII participants with a time of 27:18.7. Returners Noah Siegel (27:26.2) and Kyle Fetter (27:29.2) placed 16th and 17th among DII runners as the final two Pioneers to score in the seven-person scoring system.