July 1, 2002

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University women's cross country team took a step closer to repeating as West Coast Conference Champions when they announced that transfer Kimberly Bates would be a member of the 2002 Mission Harriers.

Bates comes to the Mission Campus from the University of Arizona where she ran the last three seasons for the Wildcats. As a redshirt junior last season she helped the Cats to a fourth-place finish nationally and a second-place finish at the NCAA West Regional. She finished the regional in 32nd-place with a time of 22:23.9, nearly one minute faster than the fastest WCC competitor at the regional.

She graduated from the University of Arizona in June with a degree in Psychology. She was recently accepted to the Counseling, Psychology and Education graduate program at Santa Clara and will begin work on her master's this fall.

"Kim is someone who has the potential to be conference champion next year for us," said 2001 WCC Coach of the Year Tom Service. "We have the majority of last year's championship team returning from last year and by adding Kim into that mix, we should really be a force to be reckoned with."

The 2001 Broncos shocked the WCC last season when they snapped Portland's six-year hold on the conference crown with a 17-point victory over the Pilots to claim the school's first-ever cross-country conference title. Robin Bell took home WCC Freshman of the Year honors while four other women's runners finished on All-WCC teams.