California Baptist University
NCAA DI West Regionals
TF Preview: CBU Heads to Fayetteville for Second Consecutive Trip to West Regionals
5/20/2024 11:12:00 AM | Cross Country & Track
RIVERSIDE, CA--- For the second consecutive season, the California Baptist University track team will compete at the DI West Regionals, with four athletes qualifying for the event.
The West Regionals will be held this year in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas over four days. The Lancers will compete in five distance events at Regionals, including the men's and women's 5K, men's and women's 10K, and the women's 3000M Steeplechase. The athletes will need to record top 12 finishes in their respective events in order to earn a trip to Nationals for the second straight season.
Last season, in the program's first-ever trip to the West Regionals, the Lancers had two athletes qualify for Nationals in Greta Karinauskiate (3000M Steeplechase) and Yasna Petrova (Women's 5K). Karinauskaite and Petrova will both compete for CBU at the West Regionals and will be joined by Matias Reynaga and Valentin Soca, who are seeking to become the first male athletes to stamp their tickets to Nationals. Soca and Reynaga will both compete in the 5K and 10K races on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. Karinauskaite will compete for the second consecutive season in the steeplechase, and Petrova will run in both the 5K and 10K.
At the West Regionals in Sacramento a season ago, Karinauskaite set the program record in the steeplechase, clocking a time of 9:26.88. The time is still the fastest-ever run in the West Regionals and was the fifth-fastest time in NCAA history at the time of the race. This season, Karinauskaite claimed her third-straight Western Athletic Conference crown at the Outdoor Championships and recorded the fourth-fastest time in the NCAA of the season at the Bryan Clay Invitational at 9:37.31. Karinauskaite is the reigning silver medalist and the first Lancer to be a First Team All-American and will look to stamp her ticket to Nationals in Eugene, Oregon.
Petrova will also look to earn a second consecutive trip to Nationals after qualifying in the 5K last season. Petrova qualified in both the 10K and 5K this season, including recording the seventh fastest time in the NCAA this year in the 10K. She set the time at the Stanford Invitational at 32:36.97, which was a personal best by more than 50 seconds. Soca and Reynaga will look to become the first male runners to earn a trip to Nationals and will have two different opportunities in the 5K and 10K. Reynaga and Soca finished 1-2 at the WAC Championships in the 1.5K and have recorded top 26 times in the NCAA in that event.
Regionals begin this Wednesday with the Men's 10K and will conclude on Saturday with the Women's Steeplechase and 5K. All events will be streamed live on ESPN+, and live results will be available here.
Players Mentioned
