Wildcat men sweep top 5 finishes in San Diego

Junior Abdi Abdirahman won his second consecutive meet, completing the course with a time of 25 minutes, 28 seconds to pace the field.

He was followed by junior Jeff McLarty (25:36), sophomore Micheil Jones (25:39), and freshmen David Lopez (25:57) and Tom Prindiville (26:08).

"There were ten teams there," UA head coach Dave Murray said. "So the competition was not very good. But we shut the field out, so I was pretty impressed."

"It was a good way to start the season," Abdirahman said. "It's not what we expected going into the meet."

The Wildcat women finished third, coming in behind UCLA and Florida.

They were without sophomore Kristen Parrish, who had to sit out this weekend after doctors discovered a she had a low potassium level that was leaving her exhausted during practice.

"Not having Kristen hurt (our finish)," Murray said.

Junior Amy Skieresz surprised no one by winning her ninth consecutive meet, with her time of 16:57 beating UCLA's Kim Mortensen by 21 seconds.

Skieresz became only the third runner in the 54 year history of the Aztec Invitational to finish the 5,000-meter run in under 17 minutes.

"It's a good way to judge," Skieresz said of her time. "I'd never run on that course before."

Senior Virginia Camacho finished fourth (18:00), followed by senior Tone Bratteng (19:04, 20th) and junior transfer Katrin Engelen (19:32, 29th), who was competing for the first time in the United States. Engelen had just come to UA from her native Germany.

Next up for the Wildcats is the Mountain West Classic in Missoula, Mont. on Oct. 4.

"It's our first real meet," Murray said, as he feels that the competition there will be greater than that which the Wildcats have faced so far.

"Now there's no more cookie (races)," Skieresz said.