SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – The cross country season got going Saturday morning, with both Azusa Pacific's men's and women's teams competing at the Coyote Challenge hosted by Cal State San Bernardino.  The women's team took to the six-kilometer course first, placing seventh out of 14 schools competing, before the men finished 13th.

Naomi Satelo was the top finisher for the Cougar women, hitting the tape just outside the top 20 with a time of 21:51.8.  Ashlyn Doolan placed 30th overall, running the course in 22:05.5.  Nora De Walle, Emilyn Tang, and Lola Esparza were the next three Cougars across the finish line, comprising the five places that went into determining the team score.  The women's team finished with 229 points, good for seventh overall and second among the five SCIAC schools who participated (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps tied for second with 58 points).

Coach Jebreh Harris offered his thoughts on the opening meet.  "I love the energy of our team.  It's the first race of the season, and for us to place how we did shows a lot of promise."

On the men's side, sophomore Isaiah Cowan was the Cougars' top finisher over the eight-kilometer course, coming to the finish line in a time of 27:16.3, which placed 67th overall.  Four freshmen comprised the remainder of the effort, with Micah Neumann, Dalton Garcia, Aidan Cargill, and Isaac Crisostomo helping the Cougars to a 13th-place finish in their first collegiate race.

Harris highlighted the potential of this crop of underclassmen.  "Outside of Isaiah we have an entirely new team.  We are in a transition as a program, but this is a great group of guys to build a program with.  We will continue to improve as we move further into our training."

The Cougars will next compete on the 19th at the UC Riverside Invitational.  The women's race will kick off at 8:25 a.m., with the men to follow at 8:55.