As runners paced at Golden Gate Park’s Speedway Meadow on Friday afternoon, the atmosphere was filled with cheering heard throughout men’s and women’s cross country meets at the SF State Invitational. With hundreds of spectators in attendance, student-athletes across 15 different schools competed in the annual event.
The Gators faced tough competition, as the women’s team finished seventh out of 12, and the men’s team finished 10th out of 14. Despite not achieving the results the Gators hoped for as a collective unit, runners like Raven Nieto excelled, finishing 13th out of 130 competitors with a time of 22:27.1.
“Raven ran fantastic,” said Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Tom Lyons, who is in his 21st year as head coach. “I’m sure her time is one of the fastest that we’ve had in my time coaching.”
The amazing finish is what Nieto has been expecting from herself this season. She has been dealing with a sickness throughout the beginning of the season that was hindering her performance. Nieto believes she was “in the zone” and was elated to perform with the support of her family in the crowd — something that isn’t present at every meet.
“It means a little bit more to me than the other [runners],” Nieto said. “It took a lot for me to get here to run, cause I didn’t think I was going to be able to run in college…I worked really hard to get here, too. So it’s just special when they get to see me, all the hard work.”
Friday was also the day when the Gators honored senior runners Tyler Sharp and Yuridia Corona. Although both runners still have a couple of races left in the season, this will be the last time they compete at the SF State Invitational.
When Corona first arrived at San Francisco State University, she wasn’t even a part of the cross-country team. Corona transferred to SFSU as a Division III soccer player to play for the women’s team. When Lyons approached Corona to run, she made the switch. The rest is history.
“I’m really grateful to say bye to cross country, but also still locked in for regionals,” Corona said.
Sharp has competed on the cross country team for the four years he’s been at SFSU. He reflected on his long cross-country journey after the meet.
“It’s the end of the era,” Sharp said. “I’ve been doing this since my freshman year of high school, so it’s been eight years, [a] big portion of my life. It’s kind of coming to a close here, and it’s been a lot of fun. I feel really appreciative that I’ve been able to do this for so long.”
Sharp said that today wasn’t the best race he’s ever ran in his career, but in cross country, one must keep going and start preparing for the next one.
“You kind of have to have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to this,” Sharp said. “Three seconds and it’s gone. I just have to keep training and trust my coach and know that in future races, I’ll feel better and be ready to go.”
Eyes are on the future as the team prepares for the upcoming CCAA Championships in Chico on Oct. 24. Lyons believes that Friday’s race helped both teams prepare for the championships, partly due to the course being one of the hardest ones they race this season.
“Going out fast, going out more controlled,” Lyons said. “We’ve got some incredible teams in our conference that we got kind of close to, and they’re the ones that are sort of middle of the pack of the conference that we’re hoping we can compete with.”
In agreement with Lyons, Corona believes this course will help her create a stellar performance at the CCAA Championships.
“The terrain is just really tough,” Corona said. “It’s grass hills and wood chips, everything you can find at a cross country course, you’ll for sure find it here…Because mentally you have to know it’s gonna be hard, and if it doesn’t hurt, if it’s not hard, you’re not doing it right.”
Nieto said she plans on using today’s performance as a confidence booster for the conference championships.
“I think just mentally, this helps me have more confidence in myself and have confidence that I can place good in [the championships],” Nieto said.
Lyons was happy to see how successful the event was, with alums from previous teams supporting the Gators.
“I have had wonderful teams over the years and great folks,” Lyons said. “This [group of runners] is just another one of those. This is as good as it gets.”
