University Southern California Trojans
USC
Titan Invitational
Owen Leads USC At Titan Invitational
October 22, 2010 | Women's Cross Country
Oct. 22, 2010
Sophomore Kelly Owen led the USC women's cross country team to a sixth-place finish today (Oct. 22) at the 5K Titan Invitational held on the CS Fullerton campus in Fullerton, Calif.
USC was using the meet to evaluate some of the younger runners and Owen continued making great progress and showed why she will be one of the Trojans' seven runners to compete at the Pac-10 Championships next week in Seattle, Wash. Owen finished 19th, 12th among scoring runners, to lead USC with a 5K PR of 18:27.7. Just a week ago at the CS Northridge Invitational, she set a 6K PR with a time of 22:34.
USC's second finisher was redshirt sophomore Anniya Louis who had a time of 18:29.5 to place 22nd, 15th in the scoring. She also bettered her previous 5K PR of 18:48 when she ran unattached as a true freshman in 2008 on the same course. She has battled through hip injuries since arriving at USC in 2008, following a standout career as an 800m runner at Culver City HS (Calif.). This race was her first official cross country competition at USC and she demonstrated why the coaches are excited for her as the 2011 track and field season approaches.
`It was really Anniya's first race in a year and a half so that was pretty impressive," said USC cross country coach Tom Walsh. "I was really happy for her."
Freshman Jaclyn Walles continued her strong debut campaign posting a 5K PR of 18:31 to place 23rd, 16th in the scoring. Her time was nearly 50 seconds better than her first 5K race this season.
"Annyia, Kelly and Jaclyn worked very hard together and ran a great race," said Walsh. "I was really happy how they approached the whole race and the way they moved in the second half. All three had a really good race."
Not to be outdone, senior Allison Rojewski also set a PR with a time of 19:20.6 to finish 51st, 38th in the scoring. Rojewski's previous best 5K time was 19:55 set a year ago at Fullerton.
"Allison ran very well and it was the best she has ever run in the second half of a race," said Walsh. "She ran a PR by a lot and I was really happy to see her do that."
USC's final official runner was freshman Francesca Adamski who was running in her first race as a Trojan. Adamski placed 65th in the scoring with a time of 20.59.6.
Running unattached and very impressively was senior transfer Ariel Wright who exhausted her cross country eligibility at Brown, but will compete for USC in track and field in the spring. Wright placed second overall with a time of 17:03.2, less than six seconds behind the winner Poppy Lawman from Azusa Pacific (16:57.8).
Expected to represent USC at the Pac-10 cross country championships on Oct. 30 in Seattle, Wash. are senior Zsofia Erdelyi, senior Christine Cortez, junior Leah Gaeta, senior Dina Kitayama, senior Zara Luken, redshirt sophomore Jessica Lundin and Owen.
Final Team Scoring: 1.) Azuas Pacific -46, 2.) LMU - 80, 3.) CS Bakersfield - 94, 4.) Cal Baptist - 106, 5.) CSULA - 108, 6.) USC - 146, 7.) UCLA - 151, 8.) UC Irvine - 194, 9.) UCSD - 225, 10.) Pepperdine - 260.
