SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The UC San Diego cross country season came to a close on Friday at the NCAA West Regional Championships, which saw the Tritons compete in a field of 40 teams.
 
The Triton women finished 13th to improve three spots from their finish at this meet last year. The Triton men were 18th and matched their 2024 finish.
 
Big West champion Sylvana Northrop once again led the Tritons, running 20:16.6 to place 23rd in the women's 6k. Nathan Garderes was the top Triton in the men's 10k, finishing 81st with a time of 31:05.8. The two redshirt seniors both improved their placement from last season's regionals.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Women's 6k
Both races featured over 200 runners. In the women's race, Northrop did well to pick her way through the traffic. She was 42nd at the 1.5-mile mark, moving up to 33rd after three miles. Northrop then past 10 more runners in the closing stages of the race to finish 23rd.
 
As a team the Tritons were consistent throughout, coming in 13th at every split. Dasha LeFaivre and Christel Elkins also had strong second halves of the race to place 62nd and 69th. Elkins passed 13 runners in her final kilometer.
 
Allyson Abandonato and Emma Dunmire came home within a second of each other in 91st and 92nd to also record top-100 finishes and round out the Tritons' point scorers. They were followed by Shea Elmore (115th) and Jenna Satovsky (171st).
 
Men's 10k
The Tritons were also consistent as a team in the men's race, establishing themselves in 19th at the halfway mark before sliding up into their final spot of 18th. Garderes was 91st at that point, passing 10 runners in the final half to finish 81st.
 
Joseph Vargas joined Garderes in the top 100 with a 98th-place result. The Tritons' next four runners were all within a minute of Vargas. Evan Hild (110th), Jeffrey Keeney (124th) and Charlie Frank (129th) rounded out the points, with Tate Meaux (136th) next across the line. Nathaniel Griffin-Yeh followed in 162nd.
 
TRITON TIDBITS

• Friday's race was the only time this season that the men's team ran a 10k.
• Northrop has now been the Triton women's top finisher in every race for two-straight seasons.
• Garderes was the Triton men's top finisher for the final four races of the season.
• The Tritons were eligible to compete in the NCAA Regional Championships for the second time since making the transition to Division I.

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.