SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's cross country team continued one of the sport's enduring traditions by qualifying for the NAIA Championships. That's 16 consecutive seasons.
Considering between 30 to 36 teams out of 255 advance to the national championships each year, the accomplishment is even more remarkable. The tradition continued thanks to a seventh consecutive title at the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Championship.
The men's squad debuted at
No. 9 in the NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Preseason Poll and never dropped out of the top 10 this season. The Cougars concluded the year at No. 7 in the postseason poll released Dec. 3.
The Cougars began their 2014 campaign with their annual trip to Mammoth Lakes, Calif. and capped the week off with a
win over Vanguard in a 6K dual race on Aug. 18.
Competing against some of the best NCAA Division I and II teams in the country, the Cougars battled sickness and extreme heat to place
14th in the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 13.
CSUSM went on to win four of its final five races, placing runner-up in the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational. Freshman
Andrew Tellames had a
breakout performance at the PP Invite, finishing a team-best fourth among 182 runners.
Tellames followed that victory with a
win at the Cougar Challenge on Oct. 18 with a PR of 25:06 on the 8K course. CSUSM dominated the field by clinching the top five spots for a perfect sweep of 15 points.
The CSUSM men's and women's cross country teams ended the regular season with a bang with both teams taking the
team titles at Biola's NAIA West Coast Jamboree hosted by Biola on Oct. 25. Tellames once again collected individual medalist honors and four Cougars finished in the top ten.
In very windy conditions and temperatures as low as 35 degrees, the tenth-ranked Cougars collected 23 points to defeat No. 7 University of British Columbia (33 points) to
capture their seventh consecutive A.I.I. Championship title in Clinton, Iowa. CSUSM, paced by junior
Enrique Ramirez's runner-up finish, collected six spots in the top 10.
All ten Cougars competing at the A.I.I. Championship earned all-conference nods with Ramirez, Tellames,
Steven Ing,
Zach Laurenzana,
Easton Tackett and
Daniel Ybarra collecting first team honors.
Ryan Maize,
Anthony Girolamo,
Michael Waltrip and
Issac Vallejo were named to the second team.
At the 2014 NAIA National Cross Country Championships, the CSUSM cross country teams placed
fourth in the combined team competition after both squads collected seventh-place finishes.
Ing and Tellames were named NAIA All-Americans after placing in the top 30, finishing 17th and 21st, respectively.
Recognized for his outstanding work in the classroom, Ing was
named a Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athlete after accumulating a 3.52 GPA in his two and half years at CSUSM.
