April 12, 2010
The Santa Clara men's track team made the trip up to Chico for a two-day meet hosted by Chico State. The first night of competition was highlighted by two personal bests in the men's 5000m.
Bronco freshman Kevin Oliver finished 17th in the fastest heat of the 5k, dropping his personal best from 15:31 to 15:17.33 while junior Chris Mosier won the second heat of the 500m in the most exciting race of the night. Mosier covered the final 200m in well under 30 seconds to break the tape in a new personal best of 15:23.83. His previous best was 15:38.
Also running well in the men's 5k was Matt Savage, who recorded the second-best time of his career, running 15:52.60.
Other events on Friday night were the 800m and 3000m Steeplechase. Robbie Reid, Richard Zhu and John Laughlin competed in the top sections of the men's 800m. Reid finished sixth overall in 1:53.77, his second-best time in the event. Zhu and Laughlin ran 1:57.49 and 1:58.71, respectively, in their races.
Stephen Koch ran a competitive race, leading for much of the second half of the 3k steeple before finishing third overall at 9:31.38. He was followed by Nhunguyen Le in fifth (9:45.73).
Senior captain Alex Harkins had a great race as he continues to build his fitness after a winter injury finishing in 9:47.97 for sixth.
In day two of the meet, Reid doubled back from the 800m to place fourth overall in the men's invitational 1500m (3:59.67). The early pace of the seeded section of the men's 1500m was very slow and the race became tactical, which played into the hands of freshman Guadalupe Gonzalez who dominated the field in the final 100m to win convincingly in 4:03.05.
Both the men's and women's track teams return to action next weekend at UC Davis for the Woody Wilson Classic.
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
