49ers Travel To Big West Championships
Beach looks to continue strong performance in San Luis Obispo

October 25, 2007

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FIRST RUN: The Long Beach State cross-country team travels up to San Luis Obispo for the Big West Conference Championships on Saturday, Oct. 27 ... the men's race will begin at 9 a.m., while the women's race will start at approximately 9:55 a.m., both races will held at the Fairbanks Cross Country Course.

CUNNIFF ON BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS: "We have high expectations heading into the weekend," said 49er Distant Coach Patrick Cunniff. "We have trained hard all year and we are excited that it is championship time. We hope to beat our pre-season rankings of 6th on both men's and women's and show that this is a program that will compete hard and be a threat every year. Several of our runners are shooting for All-Conference honors and everyone is looking for their best, most complete race of the year."

BEACH LIMITS PRACTICE DUE TO BAD AIR QUALITY: Due to the wildfires that have plagued Southern California this week, the 49ers' practices have been limited to the poor air quality around the entire Southern California region. "Our practices have been thrown off by air quality concerns," said Cunniff. "But the kids have responded in a focused, positive way and have really shown me that they are locked in and ready for Big West competition. Plus we know almost all our competition is facing similar conditions and concerns."

FORTY-NINERS IN THE RANKINGS: After capturing the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational title last weekend, the 49er men's team moved up one spot to No. 14 in the USTFCCCA West Region. The women are ranked No. 15 this week, the first time this season.

TITAN INVITATIONAL: Freshman Steven DeCastro ran 26:25 for 13th place at the CS Fullerton Invitational, while Jelani Carter was the top female finisher for Long Beach State, running 20:33 for 51st place in a controlled meet for the 49ers ... both teams used the race as more of a tuneup for future meets than an actual race, as the men finished fourth of seven with 94 points and the women were eighth of eight with 213 points.

LBSU WINS BRONCO INVITE: The Long Beach State cross-country teams had their best perfomance of the year in the largest meet on the west coast as the men captured the Santa Clara Invitational title and the women finished in second place on Saturday morning at Baylands Regional Park ... Dylan Jaedtke, Eli Rodriguez and Travis Kuhlman led The Beach as all three runners finished in the top ten. Jaedtke was the top finisher in the 8K race for the men's team, finishing in fourth place with a time of 24:52, four seconds short of his personal-best ... Rodriguez was close behind as he finished in fifth with a time of 25:06 and Kuhlman finihsed in 10th, with a time of 25:13 ... on the women's side, Sarah Apgar and Carly Harris were the top 49ers and they finished in the top ten ... Apgar finished in second place in the 5K race as she placed the third fastest time in course history with a time of 17:21 and recorded the fastest 5K in LBSU history (previous best was 17:26), while Harris finished in seventh with a time of 17:41 ... Jennifer Rodriguez (18:03), Christina Wilson (18:09) and Missy Barclay (18:13) finished 25th, 30th and 36th.

THE COACH: Patrick Cunniff takes over the duties as cross-country coach as he spent the last two years as an assistant at Texas Christian University ... Cunniff coached six NCAA Division I National Championship qualifiers during his two years at TCU (2004-06), including three cross country student-athletes ... the TCU women finished second at the Conference USA Championships in 2004 and at the '04 South Central Regional a TCU runner won the individual cross country championship. Cunniff coached 10 student-athletes to individual conference championships during his tenure (1 cross country, 6 indoor, 3 outdoor) ... during the spring of 2006 Cunniff served as the interim head coach at TCU. He began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach for women's track and cross country at the University of Texas ... in his time at UT the Longhorns won the 2003 and 2004 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships while also winning the 2003 South Central Regional Cross Country title ... for the past year he has served as a program coach and team coordinator for Luke's Locker, an adult program in 5k, 10k and marathon training ... Cunniff earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia with a degree in political science ... he was a three-year letterwinner in cross country and track for the Bulldogs.