On September 14^th, 2019 the Central Arizona Men's and Women's teams embarked on their first meet of the season as they traveled to Riverside, California for the Highlander Invitational.  The Vaquero Men and Vaquera Women had some solid individual performances as well as a strong team showing against four year institutions. 

"The Mens teams overal time was close to last years National Champion winning Mens team. I am proud of how this years team ran in their first meet" Stated Head Coach Tavares. "It wasn't our greatest race on the Womens side. We had a few key runners out with injuries, but the Womens team have a lot of talent, and will continue to improve as the season goes on." Head Coach Tavares

The men were led by Sophomore Habtaumu Cheney for 25^th place overall with an impressive time of 24:59 on the 8km course.  Rounding out the top five for the Vaqueros were James Kapel (25:00), Aaron Orar (25:18), Jesus Aldana (25:30), and Kyle Partin (26:00).  "The men ran solid today, overall they performed well but there is a lot of work to do before nationals in November" Stated Coach Jon Harmon.

For the Vaqueras, freshman Makayah Richard led the team with a 19:29 effort on the 5km course which was good enough for 44^th overall.  The remaining scorers for the team were Esther Beck (20:07), Tswanuelo Maruping (20:29), Alisia Honyumptewa (20:34), and Taylor Murphy (20:38).  "MaKayah performed well today but we know as a team we are better than how we raced today.  The ladies will be hungry to do better at our next meet" Replied Coach Jon Harmon.

The Vaquero's and Vaquera's will compete next at the Region 1 Conference Championships at Mesa Community College on 9/28/19 where the men and women will be looking to defend their conference title from 2018.