SUNNYVALE, Calif. - With the West Coast Conference championships just two weeks away, the Santa Clara University men's and women's cross country teams got just what they wanted out of hosting the Santa Clara Invitational today.

Redshirt sophomore Shannon Bell (Spokane, Wash.) cruised to the second-fastest 5k time in the WCC this season and the Bronco men's squad used a collective team effort to finish second in the five-team 8k race at Baylands Park.

A limited number of runners will compete at next weekend's Shoreline Invitational in Mountain View, Calif. The majority of the team will take the week off in preparation for the league championships, scheduled for Saturday morning, Oct. 29 at Crystal Sprints XC Course in Belmont, Calif.

"I thought we achieved just what we needed to today," said SCU head coach Tom Service. "This course lends itself to fast times and the relatively flat terrain doesn't beat the competitors down too much before the league championships. I thought both of our teams ran well today. The men ran well together and looked pretty much at ease throughout the race. Our women's team is a bit thin right now due to some injuries so we'll use the next two weeks to continue to get healthy and prepared for the championships part of the season."

The Bronco men placed five runners among the top 19 finishers overall to eran 60 points, seven ahead of third-place Cal State Fullerton. UC Davis won the team title by finishing all five of its top runners among the top 9 individuals to score 22 points. San Jose State was fourth with 97 points and Saint Mary's College finished fifth with 134.

Freshman Chris Mulvany (Littleton, Colo.) finished seventh overall in the men's race in a time of 25:16.27. Broncos Chris Doerhoff (25:38.48), John Paul Thyken (25:41.13) and Christen Gumbs (25:45.26) finished 14th through 16th, respectively. Junior Taylor Graham was the team's fifth scorer with a 19th place finish in a time of 25:52.01.

Jordan Horn, running unattached, posted an 8k time of 23:52.48 to earn individual honors in the men's race, while Nick Arciniana from Team Saucony finished second. Cal State Fullerton's Damien Nieves was the top collegiate finisher, taking third place in a time of 24:46.73.

Bell, who missed last season due to injury, finished fifth overall in her fastest outing of the year. Her time of 17:54.55 is the second-fastest in the WCC this season and is only the second sub-18:00 performance among league runners.

A trio of of Bronco freshmen were the next three finishers for SCU, led by Veronica Vazquez claiming 19th place overall in a 5k time of 18:31.17. Anna Wheatley was 26th in 18:48.04, while Whitney Porter was 30th in a time of 18:53.60. Adriane Puetz was SCU's fifth runner with a 32nd-place time of 18:56.93.

San Diego State, ranked ninth in the West Region, earned the top team honors and placed all five of its top runners among the top 12 individuals in the race and registered 31 total points. Cal State Fullerton was the runner-up with 54 points, while UC Davis and San Jose State claimed third and fourth, respectively. Saint Mary's took sixth, Hawai'i seventh and Notre Dame de Namur eighth in the team standings.