By Luke Thomas, September 29, 2026
Sixth-year graduate student Ricardo Vargas broke Cal Poly Pomona’s 8,000-meter program record at the University of California, Riverside Invitational Sept. 19, setting a personal best alongside 22 other Broncos on the reputedly fast Agricultural Operations Course.
Competing in the 8,000-meter invite, the men’s team placed third out of 25 teams with an average race time of 24:07, with all 10 athletes setting new personal bests. With a total score of 103, the Broncos were only six points behind Pepperdine University, whose team finished with the same average time.
“I thought our guys got out well,” head coach Chris Bradford said. “There are still some things we got to work on in the middle of the race, but the times they ran were very fast. For this time of year, we’re really excited about where they’re at.”
Placing second overall and first collegiately, Vargas finished the hard-packed dirt course with a time of 23:26.4, surpassing former CPP runner Mark Huizar’s 8,000-meter record of 23:32.2 from the 43rd Stanford Cross Country Invitational in 2016.
For his second competition in a row, freshman Cullen Gully finished second for the Broncos, continuing his debut with a 25th placement at 24:13.6. Behind him, sophomore Luke D’Elia placed 27th with a time of 24:15.8. Rounding out the top five men, redshirt senior Jimmy Guerrero placed 32nd with a time of 24:19.3 and sophomore Micah Chandler placed 34th with a time of 24:22.6.
“(From) this race, I will be bringing a lot more intensity in that first mile to 2k,” Chandler said. “That’s something I didn’t do in my past races; I would go out conservative and not stay with where I should be for the race.”
The women’s team runners were split into two, the top 10 women from this season’s first race competed in the 6,000-meter women’s invite, while the additional eight women raced in the 5,000-meter women’s open.
Finishing seventh out of 30 as a team, the women’s invite was led by redshirt junior Miranda Palacios, who placed 17th overall with a time of 20:41.7. Palacios’ time is the second fastest 6,000-meter in the program’s history, nine seconds behind Vivian Martinez’s 20:32.7 from the NCAA West Regional last year.
Following Palacios, redshirt junior Galilea Jimenez placed 35th with a time of 20:59.9 and senior Jade Kingston placed 37th with a time of 21:02.5. Sophomore Ali Holtzen finished 67th at 21:22.6 and senior Chloe Alchin finished 72nd at 21:25.0 to round out the top five Broncos.
“I think what helped was we were working together as a team well,” Kingston said. “(We’ve) been improving since the beginning, every day the team chemistry has been getting better.”
The remaining eight Broncos finished first as a team in the 5,000-meter women’s open with an average time of 18:20 and a score of 77.
Placing fifth overall, junior Sophia Ebiner led the Broncos with a time of 18:02.8. Right behind Ebiner was freshman Sophia Pham in sixth with a time of 18:05.8, while freshman Cassidy Misuraca rounded out the top three Broncos with a time of 18:13.9 in 11th.
“(The women’s open race) was just a lot of fun,” Bradford said. “Having them go out there and run as a team, support each other, lift each other up and go out there and earn a victory. It’s something that doesn’t happen all that often, I don’t think we’ve won the open race since 2017.”
The Broncos will compete again this weekend Oct. 3 in the Cougar Challenge at California State University, San Marcos.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics
