BILLINGS, Mont. – The CSUSB Coyotes put together a great team performance and finished 12th out of 26th teams at the West Region Championships on the campus of Montana-State Billings on Saturday afternoon.
The temperature at the start was in the 20s and the teams ran on snow covered ground, but Michelle Pineda Palacios was unfazed, taking 37th out of 180 runners at 22:12.76. All-CCAA honoree Kaylie Balvaneda came in next in 55th at 22:26.33. Marissa Angulo was the third Coyote in 75th at 22:44.76 and shortly after was Arianna Fuentes in 22:50.22 in 81st. Staying in the top 100 was Julia Cantrell in 100th at 23:10.67.
"Very, very cold day here," head coach Tom Burleson said. "Our runners did a great job dealing with the elements. We maintained our fourth spot among CCAA teams and our runners were resilient. An outstanding performance and I can't be more proud of our team to end the year like this."
The Yotes matched their finish at the West Regional from two years ago as they took 12th in 2016, also in Billings.
This season, Alaska Anchorage was the team champion by an easy 19 points. They had the top two finishers with Emmanuelah Chelimo winning at 20:57.47.
