Another race and the optimism has risen even more for the Point Loma cross country team. On Sept. 19 the Sea Lions competed in one of the most prestigious cross country meets in the West, the Sundodger Invitational hosted by the University of Washington, and ran away with a fifth place finish (183 points).
Brianna Bartello paced the Sea Lions with a time of 21:45.64 to finish ninth on the 6k course at Lincoln Park.  Alex Hernandez placed 13th with a time of 21:53.84 and Marissa Bartello finished 14th (21:54.05) to make Point Loma the only school to have three runners place in the top 15.
“Alex, Marissa and Brianna performed very well,” PLNU head coach Jerry Arvin explained. “We were in the middle block to start and it really pinched some of the runners but those three got out in front early and into very good race position. Each moved up after the first mile and continued to climb towards the front. The first 6k race for these ladies was excellent.”
As a team, Point Loma edged out fellow NCAA West Regional opponents Central Washington (210 points), Simon Fraser (215), Humboldt State (227), Northwest Nazarene (324) and others.
“I had never beat Simon Fraser or Central Washington and finished ahead of both those teams,” Arvin said. “It was a very good meet. The meet was much faster this year.”
PLNU also received qualifying scores from Josie Frye who placed 55th with a time of 22:50.27 and Emily Loogman (112th) with a time of 23:54.06. This is the second straight meet these five student-athletes have posted qualifying scores for the Sea Lions. Hayley Richardson (24:14.19) and Marissa Dotter (24:35.52) provided the alternate scores.
“All the women performed well as we had planned. They settled into the race, move up and work your way through the long race. I felt they all had very good races. It has been a long time that I had a better team race out of one of my team, men or women.
“The weather and course were wonderful, and the conditions were ideal,” Arvin added. “Everyone made it through the race feeling very well.”
The Sea Lions next race will be Oct. 3 at the Willamette Invitational in Salem, Ore.