SAN MARCOS, Calif. –  The Cal State San Marcos men's and women's cross country teams will compete at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday morning in Riverside.

LAST TIME OUT

• Both teams opened the 2023 season at Cal State Fullerton's Mark Covert Classic last weekend with each taking seventh place. 
• Sankalp Shastri was CSUSM's top men's runner for the second consecutive year at the Mark Covert Classic, placing 36th with a time of 25:36.0 in the 8K race.  
• Carly Schuerger was the first CSUSM women's runner to cross the line for 32nd place with a time of 18:52.5.

UCR INVITATIONAL 

• This is the first of two trips to Riverside for the CSUSM cross country teams this season. 
• Both teams competed in the UC Riverside Invitational last season with the women taking third place and the men placing 16th. 
• The women's top finisher in 2023 was Carly Schuerger who placed seventh with a PR time of 18:06.1 while the men were led by Sankalp Shastri with a time of 24:49.0 (70th).
• The UC Riverside course is mostly flat with a few rolling hills and hard-packed dirt with pre-competition watering to reduce dust. It is run through the agricultural operations center which features 100-year-old citrus trees.

MEET THE COUGARS

• The women's team returns 13 runners while the men's team has 11 returners from the 2023 squad. 
• Twenty new student-athletes will be wearing Cougar Blue this season (15 women, five men). 
• In their final races of 2023, the men's squad finished 11th while the women's team took 13th place at the NCAA West Regional hosted by Western Oregon. 
• In the CCAA Cross Country Preseason Coaches Polls that were released last week, both the men and women were picked to finish fourth.
• In the preseason edition of the 2024 NCAA Division II West Regional Rankings, as released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), the men were ranked 10th. 

THE OLSON FILE

• Head coach Torrey Olson begins his seventh season at the helm of the men's and women's cross country programs after taking over in the summer of 2018.
• Olson came to CSUSM after spending three seasons as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at the Academy of Art University where his teams earned 50-plus All-American honors.
• Olson served as the head cross country coach the previous three years at Academy of Art.
• In addition to the Academy of Art, Olson has also worked with the University of San Francisco and Pomona-Pitzer College.
• A graduate of Pomona College in 2009, Olson also holds an MFA from St. Mary's College (2012).