Sept. 17, 2006

San Diego, CA - Jordan Horn ran second overall to lead a thin men's squad and Andrea Aguilar led an improved women's team to a fourth-place finish in the Aztec Invitational Cross Country meet Saturday at Balboa Park in San Diego.

The Titan men had only five runners and placed eighth. Horn ran the 8K course in 25:44 to trail only Azusa Pacific's Arom Rono, who ran 24:47. Long Beach State won the men's team title.

Loyola Marymount's Lauren Mickelson, who won the Cal State Fullerton meet two weeks ago, repeated in a time of 17:18 over the 5K course. Arkansas had the next six runners to easily win the team title ahead of Long Beach, LMU, Fullerton and host San Diego State.

"The women's race was real positive," said Head Coach John Elders. "They are going to get better. They have some work to do, but this was a step forward compared to our opening meet.

"Andrea did a good job and ran really aggressive. I liked how she ran. Julianne Mascianna stepped it up from her performance at the Fullerton meet and Luz Valdez ran a solid race.

"It was a tough day for the men. Damien Nieves injured an ankle during practice during the week and freshman Sergio Tapia is still not cleared to run for us. Jordan has been running a lot of mileage and as we cut back on his training, I think he will really explode."

Fullerton's next competition is Sept. 30 at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto.

MEET RESULTS