A slew of past Lancer's ran this last weekend, many of who was their first college cross country competition. Five alumni raced in four different invitationals all over the state and one in the east. Newly Lancer-graduated runner, Asher Lober, competed for the University of Vermont at the Pre-America East Meet on Sunday. Asher was 8th man on his team finishing in 33rd place in a time of 27:22. Coming off of a busy summer this is not a bad result by any means. Being on the bubble of top 7, Asher will surely be pushed throughout the season in order to race for them come championship time.

     In perhaps the biggest invitational out of any alumni this past weekend, Andrew Snyder competed in his first college race for the UC Irvine Anteater's. Being more middle-distance oriented, Andrew found it tough adjusting to the college distance of 8k (5 miles), but did fine coming in 108th place with a time of 27:48 on a slow course. A pretty good result considering he has yet to start school and training with his team! As a team, the Anteater's finished fourth overall behind well known distance running powerhouses such as Chico State and Cal Poly SLO.

     Two alumni raced at the Redlands Cross Country Invitational at Sylvan Park. Axel Ambriz (graduate of 05'), running unattached, finished a fine 14th place in a time of 19:48 on a 6k course (5:19 pace). Competing in his first college race for Occidental, Evan Hillman traveled to Redlands as well to finish in a time of 22:25 finishing in 81st place.

     As for me, I traveled down to San Francisco to compete in only my second race since I graduated from Thousand Oaks in 2007. Running for a club team called The River City Rebels in The Golden Gate Park Open I finished the slow four mile course in a time of 21:51 to come in 28th place against a tough field featuring former California Prep star Philip Reid, who won in 20:05. I will be competing for this club team this season instead of for Humboldt State due to my eligibility, but I am still excited to be racing. I have the national club championships to look forward to in November, racing against some of the most premier runners in the nation on sub-elite teams.