Titans overcome big deficit at 2-mile mark to rally past UC Davis and secure first championship since joining conference in 1985; Jake Ritter leads Cal Poly men to fourth straight crown, with Miranda Daschian also repeating for Mustangs

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

With five minutes to go in the women’s race Saturday at the Big West Championships, it seemed Cal State Fullerton coach John Elders wouldn’t get the day that eluded him for three-plus decades.

UC Davis was in control. Defending champ Cal Poly wasn’t going away. And the Titans were in deep trouble.

Yet, thanks to an amazing rally, the Titans made history. Cal State Fullerton’s women overcame a 35-point deficit at the 2-mile mark, making it all up and a little more to win the program’s first conference cross country championship at UC Riverside’s Ag-Ops course.

Fullerton won with 44 points to UC Davis’ 50. Third-place Cal Poly, a winner of five of the past seven conference crowns, was one back with 51.

Cal Poly’s men did prevail for their fourth consecutive conference title, though they had to fight off a rousing Fullerton finish in a 44-53 victory.

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Individually, the conference saw Cal Poly repeat winners on both sides, as junior Jake Ritter routed the men’s field by 43 seconds to win the 8-kilometer race in 23 minutes, 43.69 seconds, with senior teammate Miranda Daschian taking the 6-kilometer women’s event in 20:20.62.

The Fullerton women came back by simply turning it on in the final 3,000 meters, passing competitors whenever they could, even in the final 100 meters.

“Our tactic going into the race was get out, position yourselves, and then (in) the second half, definitely attack,” said Samantha Huerta, who placed second for the second consecutive year, behind Daschian in 20:24.97.

“I’m not going to lie, I personally panicked when I saw all these Davis girls and I still saw a few Cal Poly girls leading us.

“I was not sure where my other teammates were; I just kept my eye on (teammate Trinity Ruelas). So we panicked a little when we were getting surrounded by these other schools. We were just trying to remember, ‘How bad do we want it and to make this school history and to win our first-ever championship?’”

A gigantic front pack of about 15 runners finally broke up after the 2-mile mark and Daschian and Ruelas then traded leads. Daschian eventually took control, and Huerta moved into the runner-up position, passing Ruelas.

“I saw Miranda starting to make her move, and you know, the last mile was just carry it on out and hang on to her for dear life,” Huerta said. “I don’t care if you’re crying or you can’t breathe. You hang on to her and give it everything you have.”

After Daschian and Huerta, Ruelas placed third in 20:39.17. But then there was a gap, with senior Sarah Hollis squeezing past two girls right at the finish to place 10th in 21:09.39. Senior Sandra Flores was 12th in 21:11.56 and senior Alyssa Block was 17th in 21:23.19 to complete the Titans’ scorers.

Following the finish was a few tense moments before Elders, with one last check of the results, announced to his team that they had indeed won the title.

In his 32nd year as head coach at Fullerton, the university joined the Big West in 1985, Elders finally had a title, and did it with much of the same group that brought him his first track and field title in the spring.

“To share that news with them,” he said, “was an awesome moment.”

Then all hell broke loose.

“We all just started shouting and throwing water everywhere and crying,” Huerta said. “This was one of the most memorable (moments). I think team championships are worth so much more than individual championships. I’ve had remarkable seasons with Fullerton and being able to experience that myself has been super special. It’s not the same when you don’t get to share it with your team.”

Daschian has experienced both, as she did last year with the Mustangs at Carbon Canyon Regional Park. Saturday was the individual title only, and it meant a lot to Daschian – who will graduate in December – to defend her title.

She became just the fourth woman in conference history to repeat, and first since Cal Poly’s Laura Hollander in 2012 and 2013. Hollander, interestingly enough, is now an assistant coach at Fullerton and was one of many Elders credited for his team’s success.

Daschian deserves credit, too, on the Cal Poly side.

“I stayed this last quarter just so I could come back again,” she said. “My teammates are amazing, the program is great, and I just wanted to do it again. It’s fun.”

And while UC Davis, which had runners in the 1-2-3-6-10 spots at the 2-mile mark, didn’t get the finish it wanted, there was promise for a young team, as the Aggies return their top four finishers from a group that achieved its best finish at the conference final since 2016.

Sophomore Eva Goodisson, a New Zealander, finished fourth in 20:44.29. Freshman Chloe Arriaga, a standout from Walnut High in Southern California, placed eighth in 20:55.87.

“I think we started off the race as a really tight pack,” Goodisson said, “and at the 2-mile mark, you could see things starting to separate.”

Sophomore Hannah Chau led UC Irvine to a fifth-place team finish by finishing fifth herself in 20:51.83, the first top-five performance by an Anteaters female athlete at the conference final since 2008. Cal Poly junior Sierra Brill finished sixth in 20:52.63; teammate Cate Ratliff was ninth in 21:09.34.

Junior Astrid Rosvall led UC Santa Barbara to a fourth-place showing (84 points) by placing seventh individually in 20:53.72.

The men did not have the same drama, though there was a similar spirited rally by the Titans. This one, though, fell just short.

Ritter built a lead from the start. He blew through the 2-mile mark at 9:18.7 with UC Santa Barbara’s Nick Randazzo two seconds behind. By the 4.2-mile mark, the lead was 30 seconds, and he won in a runaway, with Randazzo clocking a mark of 24:26.6.

Ritter is the Big West’s first repeat men’s champion – he won by 12 seconds a year ago – since UC Santa Barbara’s Bryan Guijarro in 2014 and 2015.

“I kind of just had the same strategy as last year, just go out and make sure you’ve got nothing left at the end,” he said. “And if you saw me finish, you saw I didn’t have anything left. I put it all out there from the gun.”

Cal Poly won based on the strength of Ritter’s victory and strong pack running between Nos. 7 and 13 – with freshman John Bennett (seventh, 24:54.0), junior Chas Cook (11th, 2503.9) and freshmen Anthony Benitez (12th, 25:08.5) and Elias Opsahl (13th, 25:09.6) making up the Mustangs’ scorers.

Ritter said the team is eager to show its disappointing 33rd-place showing in the Nuttycombe Invitational in October was a fluke. Everything for his team, he said, points to the NCAA Division 1 West Regional in two weeks at Colfax, Wash.

“We took a hit in Wisconsin against some of the best teams in the nation,” he said. “It was really hard for us. We were kind of depressed about that. We were ranked behind UCSB in the regional rankings. We knew we wanted to prove them wrong and show what we’ve got today. That ended up working out and I think I have a little bit more confidence in myself that I can run fast for all of us.”

Fullerton’s men made things interesting. The Titans trimmed a 50-point deficit at two miles to 19 by 4.2 miles and cut six more by the finish to tally 53 points, nine behind Cal Poly.

Sophomore Erik Gonzalez, who prepped at nearby Rubidoux High, placed fourth in 24:39.35, while junior teammate Jacob Smith was sixth in 24:51.97, and freshman Alexis Garcia rallied from 35th at 2 miles to place 10th in 25:00.34, helping the Titans match their best finish in program history at the conference final, also placing second in 1993.

“They really, really rallied in the second half of the race,” Elders said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team of ours run a second half of a conference championship like that.”

Led by Randazzo and junior Yousef Baddour (ninth, 24:57.72), UC Santa Barbara placed third with 67 points. UC Riverside defended its home turf with a fourth-place showing and 92 points, as the Highlanders got top-five finishes out of junior Jonathan Lee (third, 24:34.72) and senior Arman Irani (24:40.96), the first time in program history that a pair of male athletes both placed in the top five at the conference final.

UC Davis junior Ryman Crone was the other top-10 finisher Saturday, placing eighth in 24:56.37.