April 9, 2005
STANISLAUS, Calif. - The Santa Clara outdoor track teams began the last month of competition of SCU's inagural track season at the Warrior Invitational at Cal State Stanislaus. The Broncos posted a strong showing with 12 individual top-10 performances combined.
The women's 1500-meters and men's 800-meter races highlighted the meet for SCU. In the women's 1500-meters, sophomore Shannon Bell made a strong bid for the win with 400 meters to go, but finshed strong in second place with a personal best of 4:53.09.
Also competing well in the 1500-meter run was Kiley Strong, who recorded a 5:04.11, which was good for fifth place. Freshman Adriane Puetz finished eighth with a mark of 5:22.34 to continue her solid first track season.
Other notable performances on the women's side were Julie Erickson in the women's 400-meters as she placed eighth in a time of 1:03.59. Blossom Marimpietri and Lauren Swigart were strong in the 3000-meters, placing third and fourth, respectively. Freshman Andrea Roozen ran the best race of her short Bronco career with a win in her heat of the 800-meters in a time of 2:34.77.
The men's 800-meter race saw two Broncos dip under the two minute mark for the first time this season. Despite getting tripped up with only 200-meters to go, Chris Furnari ran a time of 1:59.20 for fifth place in the first heat. Taylor Graham also ran a solid race in the first heat with a 2:02.03.
John Paul Thyken dominated the second heat with a blistering kick over the last 200-meters for a win and a personal record of 1:59.94. Also finishing well in the second heat was Micheal Hannon, who recorded a seasonal best of 2:03.84.
Freshman Christen Gumbs followed up his victory last week with a second place in his heat of the men's 1500-meters in a time of 4:18.93.
Next weekend, the Broncos will return to the site of their first meet of the season at UC Davis for the Woody Wilson Invitational.
