IRVINE, Calif. – After finishing second in last year's exciting PacWest Championships, the Concordia University Irvine women's cross country team projects as a Top 3 squad once again in the conference.

This year's group was voted by the head coaches to finish No. 3 in the PacWest Preseason Poll. The Golden Eagles will look to pass the defending champs from Biola as well as Azusa Pacific who round out the potential top three spots.  CUI has placed second in each of the last two seasons.

CLICK HERE for the full PacWest WXC Preseason Poll

Now entering his eighth year at the helm, head coach Keegan Bloomfield returns with a talented group in Irvine.

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The CUI women proudly placed four runners in the Top 21 last fall at the PacWest Championships and return a pair of All-Conference runners.

Elizabeth King earned Second Team All-PacWest honors and placed 13th overall. She is joined by Mariza Chavez who was Third Team All-PacWest after a 17th place finish.

Emily Littlefield narrowly missed making Third Team by coming in 24th last fall, and the junior was also a Top 70 runner at the NCAA DII West Regional race. 

Sofia Lorenzo is the team's SAAC representative and the West Torrance High School alum will be a sophomore along with Isabelle Albaladejo. Other returners who will look to cut times and follow the race plan are seniors Audrey Barcenas, Maleah Kanayama and Darla Medina.

Looking Ahead

There are six new Golden Eagles set to make their debuts and four of them are freshmen.

Adamara Esparza (Santa Ana HS), Olivia Reed (Yorba Linda HS) and Elizabeth Smorick (El Toro HS) all hail from Orange County programs. Meanwhile, Kimberly Cerny comes to Concordia from Goodyear, Arizona.

Poland native Anna Kapustka and Montclair High School alum Lizbeth Garcia join CUI as transfers from other colleges. Garcia comes to Irvine from La Verne, while Kapustka arrives via Portland State.

It is an exciting time as the team formulates their race plans for the upcoming meets that get underway in September.