HONOLULU — UC San Diego cross country's
Sylvana Northrop captured the program's first Division I conference championship on Friday when she won the women's 6k at the 2025 Big West Cross Country Championships.
Dasha LeFaivre and
Emma Dunmire both finished in the top 10 to join Northrop as All-Big West recipients.
As a team the Triton women placed third with 82 points. The Triton men finished sixth with 151 points. Cal Poly won both team titles. The meet was hosted by the University of Hawai'i at Queen Kapi'olani Regional Park in Honolulu.
Nathan Garderes was the Tritons' top performer in the men's 8k, placing 18th with a time of 25:16.3. Northrop's winning time was 20:42.1, seven seconds clear of the runner-up.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The men's race was first, with Cal Poly and UC Davis leading the way. The remaining places shuffled throughout the race thanks to tight margins across the board. Garderes pulled away from the rest of the Tritons as the race progressed, moving up the leaderboard and passing four runners in the final kilometer to claim 18th.
The Tritons' next three finishers were all in the top 40, with
Shane Badcock (31st),
Tate Meaux (35th) and
Jeffrey Keeney (38th) next across the line.
Joseph Vargas was the final point scorer, placing 42nd.
Charlie Frank was close behind in 47th, followed by
Nathaniel Griffin-Yeh in 56th.
Northrop led the women's race from start to finish. She ditched the main pack of leaders by the 3k mark, leaving her to fight with a pair of challengers. The Triton out-paced everyone else and held off a late surge by a Cal Poly runner to win the title in her final collegiate season.
LeFaivre and Dunmire led the rest of the Tritons. The duo finished a second apart in seventh and eighth. The top 10 finishers in each race were named All-Big West.
Joining those three in the points were
Allyson Abandonato (32nd) and
Shea Elmore (35th). Next up for the Tritons were
Christel Elkins and
Jenna Satovsky in 45th and 46th. The Triton women finished seven points behind UC Irvine in the race for second place.
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"Great effort from all of our racers today," head coach
Nate Garcia '00 said. "Nathan again led the way for the men with a strong race. Shane stepped up when we needed him, he ran a brave race and it paid off. Tate set the tone for us from the beginning and was the key to the whole thing working. The men's team finished a little deeper than we wanted, but in a conference as tough as this the margins are really small.
I am super proud of Sylvana. She has worked tremendously hard, and it is great to see that dedication rewarded on the course. Huge races behind her from Dasha and Emma, who claimed All-Big West honors by bravely putting themselves on the sharp end of the race and fighting for every place. The women's team got in a great battle with UC Irvine, and while we came up a little short, we are proud of how they put themselves out there."
"I have been daydreaming about this for a long time, and I am really happy that everything came together today and I was able to pull out a win for my team," Northrop said. "So many things motivated me during this race. The women who I am on the team with right now have all been so encouraging. Their confidence in me has helped me grow confidence in myself. My coaches are also super encouraging, and they know how to make a great training plan. The women who came before me on this team all worked really hard to build our program up to what it is now. All gratitude to them, and to my family. I hope I made them proud today."
UP NEXT
The Tritons will compete in the NCAA West Regional Championships on Nov. 14. This year's event will be hosted by Sacramento State.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 24-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 39 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in NCAA Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.
