All season long, Laura Aceves has been the story for the Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes cross country team. And on Saturday morning, she showed once again why she is a record-setting runner.
The senior from El Monte tore through the Guasti-Cucamonga Regional Park course in record-setting time at the CCAA Championship. She ran the course in 21 minutes, 3.3 seconds, nearly 14 seconds better than runner-up Karlie Garcia of Chico State.
The 13.7-second difference is nearly the equivalent of a 100-yard difference — the distance of a football field.
Not only did Aceves win the event, she shattered the school record time in the 6,000 by 39.9 seconds and broke her personal-best 6K time by 71 seconds.
For her efforts, she was named the CCAA Runner of the Year — a first in school history.
The Coyotes finished sixth in the event with 145 points. Michelle Pineda Palacios was 32nd (22:52.1), followed by Delaney Ellsworth (41st, 23:03.9), Rachel Gee (50th, 23:26.5), Cynthia Rivera (55th, 23:36.3), Jessica Steinhoff (63rd, 23:49.5), Laura Romero (64th, 23:50.0), Phillie Bacon (70th, 24:07.4), Alyssa Casillas (89th, 24:58.4) and Karina Budovec (96th, 25:30.4).
Chico State won the event with 20 points, followed by Cal Poly Pomona (76), Stanislaus State (116), UC San Diego (124) and Humboldt State (145).
The Coyotes are off until Nov. 5 when they compete at the NCAA West Regional in Billings, Mont.
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