Sept. 11, 2008
The Santa Clara cross country teams are back in action this weekend with the men running a split squad at the West Coast Preview and the Hornet Jamboree. The women are only running at the Hornet Jamboree. The two teams have had two weeks of good training after competing at the USF Invitational on Aug. 29.
The men will run at the West Coast Preview on Fri., Sept. 12 at 4:45 pm at Pier Park in Portland, Ore. The 10 men making the trip to Portland are: Andy Backus, Chris Gumbs, Josh Hernandez, Austin Jones, Stephen Koch, Nhunguyen Le, Chris Mosier, Robbie Reid, Chris Sampson and Richard Zhu.
Sampson rolled his ankle at the USF meet and was unable to finish so this will be his first race of the season of the season. Gumbs will be racing for the first time this season as well.
"The objective is to work on pack running and having a small spread from the first to fifth scorer and to continue to build on each race in preparation for the post season," said assistant cross country coach Felipe Montoro.
The Bronco men and women competing at the Hornet Jamboree will compete in Sacramento, Calif. on Sat., Sept. 13 at 9 am in Granite Regional Park.
"The SCU women's team returns to the CSUS meet after many years and after two solid weeks of training, we are looking forward to running competitively," said head cross country coach Tom Service.
The competition should be outstanding as the Bronco Harriers mix it up with top West Region teams like Nevada Reno, University of San Francisco, Sacramento State, Fresno State, Cal Berkeley and cross-town rival San Jose State.
The Broncos will be close to full strength as Veronica Vazquez and Melissa Conlin make their 2008 debut. Vazquez, the school's 5k record holder, and Conlin, All WCC 1st team as a freshman, sat out the San Francisco meet. They will join seniors Whitney Porter and Noelle Lopez and junior leader Stephanie Wilson in leading the Bronco charges. Several freshmen will also be making their collegiate debuts.
