Cross Country teams both earn top five places at Regional

Saturday, November 11

Riverside City Course- Riverside, CA

8:00 AM

UC Santa Cruz Athletics

NCAA West Regional

Photo by: UCSC Track and Field

11/11/2023 11:51:00 AM | Women's Cross Country

RIVERSIDE, CA– Helena Janku and Eric Jackson punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships next weekend as the UC Santa Cruz Cross Country teams had a pair of top-five finishes at the Division III Cross Country West Regional at the Riverside City Course.

Janku, who won the C2C title two weeks ago, paced the women with a ninth-place finish in the 6K with a time of 22:37. It earned Janku an All Region nod for the first time and guaranteed at least an individual qualification for Nationals. The 27th-ranked women's team placed fourth with 151 points, earning a top-four regional finish for the third year in a row.

Riley Martel-Phillips became just the third three-time All Region honoree in program history after placing 27th in 23:17.3. Sophomore Hanna Hekkanen earned All Region for the first time by placing 34th in 23:27. Other Banana Slugs running on Saturday were first years Elena Stanciu (23:42) and Kenzie Seymour (23:48) who placed 43rd and 46th respectively. Cheryl Chuang was 71st in 24:30 with Luna Centeno coming in 72nd three seconds later.

For the men, Jackson ran his second sub-25 8K in as many races to finish eighth and earn All Region for the third time in his career. Jackson unofficially qualified for next weekend's NCAA Championships and becomes the first Banana Slug with consecutive top ten finishes at the NCAA Regional since Armando Siquieros in 1981 and 1982.
The men's team, ranked 32nd nationally, finished fifth out of the thirty teams with a total of 132 points.

Three other runners made All Region. Luke Holland earned All Region honors for the first time after finishing 23rd in 25:12.7. Eric Anderson was 30th in 25:31.1 and Raymond Ingersoll was 33rd in 25:41. The rest of the Banana Slug contingent was Holden Spencer (46th, 25:56), Camden Jaureguy (62nd, 26:24.7), and Casey Orton (115th, 27:18),

The official NCAA individual and team selections will be announced Sunday morning. The NCAA Championships will take place next Saturday in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.