Oct. 13, 2000
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara men's and women's cross country teams will be competing on familiar ground for the first time this season when they host the annual Bronco Invitational Saturday at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course in Belmont, Calif. The course is also scheduled to be the host of the West Coast Conference championships on Oct. 28.
In addition to the host Broncos, Sacramento State, San Jose State, San Francisco, Saint Mary's, Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount are scheduled to compete. The 5,000-meter women's race is scheduled to start at 2 p.m., while the men's 8,000-meter race will begin at approximately 2:45 p.m. For more course information on the web visit http://www.cardiffgiant.com/ptcro.html .
"With five schools from our league participating, the Bronco Invitational will give us a good idea of where our teams stand heading into the West Coast Conference championships in two weeks," said Santa Clara men's cross country coach John Maloney. "We have had some good performances thus far this season. I think we are right on track to run well tomorrow and begin preparing for conference and NCAA championships."
The Bronco men are led by senior Charlie Brenneman (Roseville, Calif.), who has the leading time in the WCC for 8,000-meters after running a 25:25 at the Stanford Invitational two weeks ago. Also performing well this season SCU are juniors Michael Helms (Poway, Calif.), Stephen Moore (Vashon Island, Wash.) and Thomas Chapman (Fremont, Calif.) as well as freshman Ben Gauen (Seattle, Wash.).
On the women's side, last year's WCC Freshman of the Year Jenny Smokey (Minden, Nev.) leads the Broncos. She ran a season-best time of 19:09.43 last weekend at the Long Beach Invitational and has led Santa Clara in each of its four meets this season. A prep teammate of Smokey's, Annie Gastelum (Minden, Nev.) has the team's second-best time of 19:26.70 and has been a consistent number two finisher for SCU. The youthful Broncos also feature sophomores Kristin Love (Portland, Ore.), Erin Skourtes (Portland, Ore.) and freshmen Milena Basile (Bellevue, Wash.) and Katie Malinak (Overland Park, Kan.).
Some of the non-SCU names to watch in the men's race include Erik Mencarini and Craig Farley of Sacramento State, Trevor Marca of San Jose State and Enrique Henriquez of Saint Mary's. Anna Martinez of San Jose State, Melissa Madeson and Tina Limon of Sacramento State, Alanna Steinert and Tara Caskey of Gonzaga and Allegra Porter of Saint Mary's are a few of the top women entered in the meet.
