Personal bests highlight 2nd meet of season

Saturday, September 16

Riverside, Calif.

Grand Canyon

UC Riverside Invitational

9/16/2023 2:00:00 PM | Cross Country

Angotti, Provence make presence felt for Lopes in Riverside

By: Nathan Peters

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Grand Canyon cross country teams completed their second meet of the year with races at UC Riverside on Saturday.

"Both teams had some solid performances," GCU head coach Paul Limpf said. "Not necessarily what we had envisioned coming into today, but a lot of the athletes had personal bests on the course, and we know where we can improve moving forward."

With over 170 athletes in the women's 6,000-meter women's race, the Lopes finished ninth as a team. Lopes junior Abby Scherer finished with a team-leading time of 21 minutes 7.8 seconds.

"The women had a bit of a tough start getting boxed in going up the first hill and turn, and had to work their way up from there," Limpf said. "Abby may not be happy with her time, but I thought she moved well throughout the race."

GCU sophomores Kaitlyn Kaye and Hana Hall and junior Gretchen Kuffel finished together, with senior Nikki Hemmerlin close behind, all with bests.

The men had 215 athletes in the 8,000-meter race. In his first race back with the Lopes after redshirting last season, junior Cannon Angotti led the way with a personal-best time of 24:13.1.

"Cannon got out well and stayed near the front for the entire race," Limpf said.

The men had a similar start to the women, being pinched early going up the first hill to cause them to get pushed back a bit. Even with the tough start, the men had three personal bests in addition to Angotti, with senior Devin Provence (24:35.5), sophomore Jacob Pringle (25:13.5) and junior Alex Rafferty (25:15.7). Provence, a transfer making his GCU debut, ran a career-best time.

The Lopes next meet will take place at Arizona on Sept. 29.

Live results of Saturday's race in Riverside can be found here.