GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.
Eric Kleinsasser (Crescenta Valley, 2007) junior, Occidental College cross-country: When it comes to the best of the best in the Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference, Kleinsasser once more claimed that title.
For a third-straight season, Kleinsasser won the SCIAC championship and was subsequently named the conference's athlete of the week and runner of the year.
The former Falcons standout, who had been battling an injury for most of the year, won the 8,000-meter race in 25 minutes 53.23 seconds in Chino, leading Occidental to a third-place standing.
He won the SCIAC championship run by better than a five-second margin.
In the women's championship 6K race, Flintridge Prep graduate Dot Silverman took 31st in 24:54.19 for Pomona-Pitzer, which took fifth as a team.
Oxy and the Tigers will race again on Saturday in the West Regionals in Oregon.
Rosa Del Toro (Glendale Community College, 2010) junior, Long Beach State cross-country: Del Toro was once more the top runner for Long Beach State, finishing ninth in the Big West Conference Championships on Oct. 30 in Riverside.
Del Toro's ninth-place mark in the 6,000-meter race in a personal-best 20 minutes 56.6 seconds came as Long Beach finished third as a team.
Del Toro's teammate, Nina Moore, who also ran at GCC, was the team's No. 5 runner, taking 22nd in 21:28.8.
Long Beach State will run again on Saturday at the NCAA West Regional in Oregon.
Former GCC runner Zitalic Ley also took part in the Big West championships, finishing 47th overall in 22:24. Ley was the No. 2 finisher for Cal State Northridge, which was the eighth-place team in the meet.
UC Irvine finished sixth, with Crescenta Valley High graduates Carlotta Pham and Shelby Pock taking part. Pham was 48th in 22:26.1 and Pock was 53rd in 22:45.9.
Cristina Lucas (Glendale resident) sophomore, Wellesley College cross-country: Lucas garnered All-New England Men's and Women's Athletic Conference honors with a ninth-place finish at the NEWMAC Cross-Country Championships on Oct. 30 in Massachusetts.
Lucas finished the women's 5,000 in 19:11.60 as her team's No. 4 finisher. Despite tallying 31 points, Wellesley took second behind MIT's 24-point tally.
