By Luke Thomas, November 4, 2025
The men and women’s Cal Poly Pomona cross-country teams took home two top three finishes at the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships in Chico, California Oct. 24.
Coming in second place, the men’s cross-country team scored a collective 36 points, only six points behind the Chico State Wildcats, the closest CCAA finish in 34 years. Taking third place for the 6,000-meter race, the women’s cross-country team finished with 85 points, placing behind the winning Chico State and Stanislaus State.
Ricardo Vargas, who recently earned his second CCAA Runner of the Week award, came in third for the men’s 8,000-meter race with a time of 24:31.6. Close behind Vargas in fifth place was Jacob Shirota, who ran his personal best with a time of 24:39.1, earning a CCAA Newcomer of the Year honor.
Coming in third for the Broncos and seventh overall with a time of 24:45.5 was junior Juan Ramos, who expressed his disappointment over the Bronco’s narrow loss.
“We were definitely expecting a win going into it,” Ramos said. “But this is the closest the CCAA Championship has been for (34 years), so we’re pretty proud of the performance. It’s definitely a good stepping stone going into regionals.”
Senior Daniel Echeveste, who came in 11th overall and fifth for the Broncos with a time of 24:50.8, shared similar sentiments about the Bronco’s performance.
“It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but I can’t complain about a top 15 finish,” Echeveste said. “As a team, though, I know we’re obviously unsatisfied. We went there with one goal and that goal was to win, so it is a letdown, but we still raced a good race.”
Coming right behind Echeveste was senior Thomas McDonnell who came in at 24:52.7, securing 12th overall. McDonnell described a harrowing spot in the course’s winding path the Broncos needed to adapt to.
“There was this s-turn on the course, and it was on a downhill on loose gravel,” McDonnell said. “We had one guy fall the third time we were practicing going down, he slid out. Then one guy, he tried running it again and almost fell. He was right at the bottom doing the windmill with his arms. He almost went down but saved it at the end.”
Leading the women’s team, senior Vivian Martinez, who earned two consecutive CCAA Runner of the Week awards last month, took a podium finish, placing third individually with a time of 21:45.7.
Coming second and third, junior Alondra Arias took 17th with a time of 22:33.4 while junior Jade Kingston took 19th with 22:40.0. Rounding out the top five Broncos, sophomore Miranda Palacios crossed the finish line right behind Kingston with a time of 22:43.3 and Galilea Jimenez took 26th with 23:06.3.
The last time the men’s CPP cross-country team came in first at the CCAA Championships was in 1997, when the Broncos took home 23 points. It was their seventh CCAA Championship win.
While cross-country head coach Christopher Bradford was happy with individual performances at this year’s race, he ultimately was disappointed to see the Broncos fall short.
“We fell six points short,” Bradford said. “That hurts a little bit to be that close and not reach your goals. But, am I happy with the effort that they gave, putting themselves in a great position and running their hearts out? Guys like Jacob Shirota, coming from a guy who wasn’t always considered one of our top guys, putting himself in the position to be top five in the conference, I’m so happy about that kind of stuff.”
The Broncos’ next race will be at the Ash Creek Preserve for the NCAA West Regional at Monmouth, Oregon Nov. 8.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics
