Valdez Tops CSUB's Record Books

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – The Roadrunner cross country season continued to improve Saturday morning as all top five runners made big strides to reset their personal best 5k times at the Mustang Challenge. Senior Angel Valdez tops the meet breaking another CSU Bakersfield record.

"Big race with great outcomes today," said Marcia Mansur-Wentworth, Director of Cross Country and Track and Field at CSUB. "Angel wins in record time and Paradise set her best time to go onto the record books."

Mansur-Wentworth was absolutely elated with this morning's results as she continues to see all her student-athlete's performance improving, " They all ran well, best team race so far. Alexandra best time narrowly missed top 10 times for CSUB. Alyssa and Sonia saw big improvements also."

Valdez, an East Bakersfield high school graduate, won by nine seconds in front her opponents Biola, Fresno Pacific, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, Cal State Los Angeles, and Cal State San Marcos to take top time in the Mustang Challenge 5k. With a time of 17:34.8, Valdez made an extraordinary improvement of her best 5k time by 44 seconds, she now tops the list for the best time in Bakersfield's history by four seconds. After leading CSUB in the previous meets of the season and this morning, Valdez has now paced the `Runners in 13 straight meets.

Sophomore Paradise Pelzer followed behind Valdez, cutting her personal best time by nearly a minute at 18:35.9. Pelzer placed 24^th of 166 student-athletes and now ranks fifth in CSUB's Division I history. Redshirt freshman Alejandra Frausto finished third for CSUB and 54th overall with a time of 19:14.6, slicing her last time by 29 seconds. Freshmen Alyssa Diaz (20:03.7) and Sonia Holguin (20:25.2) also improved their time to round out CSUB scoring five.

As a group, the `Runners improved their average 5k time by about a minute. At their last meet in Fresno, CSUB posted their best 5k average five-woman time of 19:58 and this morning the 2017 team finished at 19:10. The `Runners finished third of four NCAA Division I teams, beating CSUN and finishing a mere three points behind UC Irvine.

Next up, the 'Runners will head to Santa Clara, Calif. on Saturday, Oct. 14, for the Bronco Invitational.

~GoRunners.com~

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Players Mentioned

Aj Frausto: 4' 11"; Sophomore

Paradise Pelzer: 5' 5"; Sophomore

Angel Valdez: 5' 3"; Senior

Sonia Holguin: 5' 0"; Redshirt Freshman

Alyssa Diaz: 5' 5"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Aj Frausto
: 4' 11"; Sophomore

Paradise Pelzer
: 5' 5"; Sophomore

Angel Valdez
: 5' 3"; Senior

Sonia Holguin
: 5' 0"; Redshirt Freshman

Alyssa Diaz
: 5' 5"; Freshman