Oct. 3, 2003

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's and women's cross country teams will both be splitting up its teams this weekend with a number of runners flying North to the Willamette Invitational and a select group of competitors driving North to the San Francisco State Invitational at Golden Gate Park.

Some of the top teams in the Northwest will be gathering Saturday morning at Bush Park in Salem, Ore. for the 29th annual Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational, hosted by Willamette University. The men's division I race is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., while the women's competition will begin at 11:30 a.m. The men will traverse an 8,000-meter course and the women will cover 5,000-meters.

Among the over 1,300 runners and teams from a dozen states and Canada scheduled to compete at Willamette are are Marquette, Iowa, Oregon, Portland, Portland State, UC Davis, Hawai'i, Nevada and Washington.

A select group of runners from both Bronco squads are also slated to compete at the SFSU Invitational at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Sonoma State University, UC Berkeley, Cal Lutheran, San Jose State, Fresno State, CSU Hayward, Cal State Dominguez Hill, Sacramento State, University of San Francisco, and University of the Pacific are all planning to send teams to compete. The women's race begins at 9 a.m. with the men's competition starting at 10 a.m.

Last season, the Bronco women used the Willamette Invitational as its official "coming out" competition. Santa Clara finished fifth among nine Division I teams in the meet and their 138 points was just five behind fourth-place Hawai'i. Idaho won the team title with five runners in the top 16 in the meet, while Auburn finished second and Oregon was third. Among the teams that finished behind the Broncos were Portland State, Portland, Fullerton State and Washington.

Next weekend, both Bronco teams are off from competition before hosting the Santa Clara Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, Calif.