Concordia cross country teams shine in first ‘Code Yellow’ event

Concordia runner Angel Aguirre finished fourth in the 8K men’s race on Saturday.

In the first “Code Yellow” event of the season, the Concordia University Irvine cross country teams responded with a superb outing this past weekend at the Vanguard Invite which included solid individual and team performances.

With tons of fans wearing yellow and gold to cheer on their Eagles at Irvine Regional Park, the men’s and women’s squads both placed second thanks in part to multiple top 10 finishes.

“It was so much fun competing,” said Concordia’s Hannah Hopkins, who finished eighth overall in the women’s race. “It really helped having all the fans cheering, there was so much energy pushing us all along. It was really cool to be able to come together as a school.”

The CUI athletics department debuted the “Code Yellow” initiative this fall for the 2018-2019 school year.  For the first time at CUI, every sport will feature one “Code Yellow” game, event, or match where fans, students, staff and alumni are encouraged to wear yellow or gold and support the competing student-athletes.

Concordia’s Angel Aguirre led the charge for the men’s team with a fourth place finish in 27 minutes, six seconds.
CUI sophomore Hector Arteaga was right behind him and placed 10th.

David Brito and Nathan Aguinaga finished 12th and 15th respectively. Fellow Eagles Tyler Arnold and Shawn Trejo also snuck into the top 20.

The men’s race covered eight kilometers while the women’s course was five kilometers (3.1 miles).

In the women’s race, five CUI runners placed in the top 10.

Rosalba Cabrera motored her way to fourth place to lead the Eagles. Cabrera notched a time of 19 minutes and five seconds.

CUI’s Bailey Wade hustled across the line in sixth place with a time of 19:45, followed by Hopkins and fellow teammates Katelyn Wilson and Anamauri Hernandez who rounded out the top 10.