Former OC high school standouts help Concordia women’s cross country team earn No. 7 ranking

Jori Paradis (right) of Concordia University was the Pac-West women’s cross country athlete of the week. (Photo courtesy Anna Bloomfield/CUI Athletics)

Competing in the largest field of the season that included a dozen NCAA Division I schools on Saturday at the UC Riverside Invitational, the Concordia University Irvine women’s and men’s cross country teams proved they can hold their own in multiple races.

The circumstances also appeared to push a ton of Eagles to turn in their best times of the entire season and the best team times for both the men and women in Concordia’s NCAA Division II era.

The women’s team is now ranked seventh in the NCAA West Region. The squad includes a number of former Orange County high school standouts: Madison Templeman, El Toro; Maddie Jahshan, Fountain Valley; Sara Feitz, Fountain Valley Adriana Gil, Ocean View; Hayley Killion, Yorba Linda and Katelyn Wilson, Esperanza.

 “I really like how our teams continue to take steps forward each week,” said Concordia cross country head coach Keegan Bloomfield. “We’re progressing really well. We raced three weeks in a row and finished that string of races with a strong performance today.” 

Fresh off a career outing where she finished second overall out of 100 plus runners at the San Francisco Invitational, Jori Paradis led the women’s team, improving her time in the 6k race by 36 seconds.

In the Women’s Invite, Paradis placed inside the top 30 among collegiate runners, which was impressive since there were nearly twice as many runners as last week’s meet.

Freshmen teammates Porsche Eismann and Templeman shaved off more than 30 seconds from the previous week.  Eismann ducked under the 22-minute mark for the first time in a collegiate 6K and Templeman improved her time by 44 seconds compared to the previous week.

Angelique Antonini and Jahshan followed suit with both getting under 23 minutes of race time for the first time in their careers. Antonini sliced off 47 seconds from her last time out and Jahshan improved by 35 seconds. Hannah Faust and Alana Hurley rounded out the top seven for the Eagles with the same formula – getting under that 23-minute mark and crossing the finish line with their best times of the year.

“On the women’s side, the team all ran their best races of the year,” said Bloomfield. 

In the Women’s 5k Open, the Eagles were led by Hayley Killion and Gil who both completed the course within 19 minutes. Wilson and Madilyn Herrera  joined them in the top 50 across the line.

On the men’s side, Angel Aguirre led the charge by clocking his fastest time of the season for the second straight week in the Men’s 8k Invite. He knocked off nearly 30 seconds from his previous race and was the first Eagle to cross the finish line.

Jason St. Pierre was next for CUI, and along with upperclassmen Hector Arteaga, Jacob Dunagin and Joshua Scheetz,  that entire quartet improved and posted times under the 26-minute mark. The largest improvement came from St. Pierre, who was almost 50 seconds faster than his last time out.

In the Men’s 8k Open, Concordia was led by David Berardi who continued the theme by knocking off about 25 seconds from his previous best. Colin Bervig hit his stride and was the second-fastest among the Eagles squad in this race, followed by Jose Manguia Zaragoza, Isaiash Duport and Dustin Berger. Miguel Ayala and Owen Beam joined their teammates inside the top 50. 

“For the men, Angel Aguirre  had another solid showing,” added Bloomfield.

–Courtesy Ben Rosehart, Concordia sports information