Complete Results (Men's 8K)

TURLOCK --- Senior Vicente Moreno pulled away from Chico State's Tim Tollefson with just over a mile to go and opened up a gap that no one would be able to close, earning Moreno his first collegiate victory and the 2007 California Collegiate Athletic Association cross country individual title Saturday on the campus of Cal State Stanislaus.

Moreno's first-place finish in 24 minutes, 48 seconds over the 8-kilometer course earned him CCAA Athlete of the Year honors and led the Warrior men to their best finish ever as a team at a conference championship - a second-place finish with 67 points. Chico State won the men's team title with 20 points after taking the second through seventh spots. The title is the Wildcats' sixth in a row dating back to 2002.

The conference coaches recognized the men's outstanding performance by voting Warrior head coach Kim Duyst as men's coach of the year.

"He was on a mission," Duyst said. "That was one of his goals. He was going to run with Chico."

Moreno and Tollefson separated themselves from the rest of the pack with about two miles to go. Starting the final loop, Moreno made a push up one of the course's only hills and sped down the backside to open a gap that he would never surrender.

"It's weird," Moreno said about his win. "This whole week I tried not to think about the race. At Stanford I wanted to break 25 (minutes) so bad, I probably psyched myself out."

Moreno dropped out of the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 29 after pulling a muscle on his side. Since then, Moreno said he has tried to take a more relaxed approach. The practice showed some promise on Oct. 6 when Moreno finished as the first collegiate runner and third overall at the Gator Invitational at Golden Gate Park.


Seniors Bobby Olivera and Jose Morales also finished in the top 15 to earn All-CCAA honors and contribute to the men's second place team finish. Olivera was 10th with a time of 25:32. Morales finished 12th in 25:39.

"Bobby had the flu really bad a couple of weeks ago, so he ran as well as he could," Duyst said. "Jose (also) ran really well."

Senior Martin Ramos barely missed being the fourth Warrior to earn All-CCAA honors at the meet, finishing 17th in 25:55, 10 seconds behind 15th-place finisher Matt LoForte from Chico State.

Also contributing for the Warriors was sophomore Shane Brookshire, who finished 31st with a time of 26:32, Jon George in 43rd at 27:04, Ivan Bojorquez in 44th at 27:17, Mark Ramirez in 57th at 28:48 and Stephen Lenz in 59th at 29:06.

"We have a lot of seniors and a lot of guys who did their homework over the summer, so they deserve this," Duyst said.

Joining Moreno, Olivera, Morales and Duyst in the individual awards were Alberto Diaz of Cal Poly Pomona as freshman of the year and Brendan Scanlon of Chico State as Newcomer of the year, both elected by the conference coaches.

The men now look forward towards the west regional championship on Nov. 3 in Boise, Idaho. The men have been ranked 8th in the region by the USTFCCAA all season long. The men finished 9th last season and 8th in 2005.

"If we can keep our front runners up there and they run well, we can be in the top four," Duyst said. "I think (today) is great for our guys so they can see, 'Wow, we can do this.'"