CBU Ready to Make a Run on the Track This Spring

Friday, March 12

Fullerton, Calif.

All Day

California Baptist University

Ben Brown Invitational

Photo by: Andrew Shortall

CBU Ready to Make a Run on the Track This Spring

3/11/2021 7:52:00 AM | Cross Country & Track

By: Andrew Shortall, Director of Athletics Communications

RIVERSIDE – California Baptist University will look to carry over the momentum it created in the cross country season into track this spring.

The Lancers are coming off a clean sweep at the Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships, as it won both team and individual titles less than two weeks ago on Feb. 27. CBU is set to open the track season at Cal State Fullerton's Ben Brown Invitational on Friday.

"I thought we got some good mojo going at the end of the cross country season," Coach Adam Tribble said. "Now we have a number of people who were not even eligible to compete in cross who we are excited to get back in the fold and out in a CBU uniform for the first time."

Tribble mentioned Karin Gosek and Anneken Viljoen as two runners who came to CBU this fall and will now be eligible to compete this track season.

"They have both looked quite good lately. They've done well adapting to the training in the few months they've been here. I am excited to see what they will do once we've moved into the month of April," Tribble said.

Of course, there are familiar names who will be looked at to continue to produce big things on the track this spring, including Anna Mate, Emilie Renaud and Greta Karinauskaite. Mate won the individual WAC cross country title two weeks ago, while Karinauskaite took third place and won the conference's Freshman of the Year award. Renaud took sixth place individually for an All-WAC First-Team finish, along with Emilia Mikszuta.

On the men's side, Giedrius Valincius, Florian Le Pallec, Luis Chavez, Ivo Balabanov and Manuel Peris Bruno will all be looked at to build on their impressive cross country seasons. Valincius won the WAC title two weeks ago, while Chavez took second and Le Pallec sixth for first-team all-conference recognition.

The change in seasons does bring a change in mentality for the Lancers, as the cross country season is all about team performance while the track season shifts to an individual mindset.

"We want to help them run good times and achieve some of their individual goals," Tribble said. "We want to do what we can to help them run times they never imagined possible, help them get a lot of good PRs and get them ready to run at the WAC Championships and various European Championships that COVID-19 allows for this offseason."

There's plenty of reason to think the Lancers will put up some impressive times this spring. In just two events last track season, they clocked two new program records and another top-10 time. During this cross country season, the two teams combined to set 15 new top-25 times in program history and a new record, as well.

"I would expect it if all goes well to have a lot of new big marks for CBU, that's exciting because we have some good mojo coming around right now," Tribble said. "The energy and work ethic we are seeing right now is exciting and that's infectious."