2022 CCCAA State Qualifier Anthony Erikson has dominated the first month of cross-country season.  Last Friday, Erikson collected his third straight victory and led Cuesta to 15th place in the 27-team, 263-participant Southern California Preview Meet.  Erikson covered the four-mile course in 19:57.4, which marked his first sub-20-minute race of his collegiate career and won the race by 1.2 seconds over Bakersfield's Nathaniel Rodriguez.  2022 All-WSC performer Axel Reich followed Erikson across the line in 64th place (21:57.3), while Freshman Gabriel Irwin (23:34.8) and Sophomore Jorge Merced (23:35.3) were less than a second apart in 129th and 130th.  Sophomore Deegan Miller completed the Cougars' scoring team in 201st place (26:07.1).

The Harriers return to action on September 29th with the Western State Conference Preview, which shall feature all the teams in the conference three weeks before the 2023 Western State Conference Championship on October 20.  The WSC appears to be the elite conference in the region this year.  Cuesta's Anthony Erikson and Bakersfield's Nathaniel Rodriguez represented two of the seven WSC Harriers to finish in the Top 10 at the regional preview.