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Santa Clara Women Finish Runner-up at Bronco Invitational

Santa Clara Women Finish Runner-up at Bronco Invitational

Oct. 18, 2008

Complete Meet Results

Hosting the largest collegiate cross country meet on the West Coast this weekend, the Bronco Invitational was once again very competitive. The Santa Clara women finished as the runner-up to Long Beach State in the invitational and the Santa Clara men were seventh with Long Beach State winning the men's invitational as well.

The Bronco women scored 120 points to LBSU's 88 points in the invitational. The Long Beach State men scored 76 points to win the men's invitational, with the Santa Clara men finishing in seventh place with 190 points. Santa Clara was the top West Coast Conference school in both invitational races.

"We are very excited about finishing as the runner-up in an invitational like this with so many quality teams. This is a good stepping-stone to the West Coast Conference Championships in two weeks for the women's team," said Santa Clara head coach Tom Service. "Every time we have a positive step, like winning two weeks ago and also finishing as the runner-up today, we are proud of it but we are working towards a strong finish at the WCC and NCAA West Region Championships.

"Veronica's time of 17:43 was the second-fastest time by a Bronco in Bronco Invitational history so that shows she ran a strong race today," said Service. "There was a 38 second spread between our first and fifth runner which is good - the pack mentality is alive and well."

"We finished seventh, but after looking at the results, we ran really well. We are pretty close to the NCAA Region teams we are looking compete with in a month," said Santa Clara assistant coach Felipe Montoro. "Robbie Reid ran a 45 second personal best and that's huge. Chris Gumbs won't be happy with how he ran, but he is progressing well towards the end of the year, running a seasonal-PR. The guys packed it up pretty well and it looks good heading into the post-season."

Santa Clara's top finisher in the official team scoring on the women' side was Veronica Vazquez, who finished ninth at 17:43. Also finishing in the top 20 for Santa Clara was Stephanie Wilson in 19th place at 17:58.

Rounding out the Broncos' top five was Whitney Porter, who finished as the third Bronco in 26th place at 18:08; Nicole Giove was fourth for SCU in 31st place at 18:14 and in fifth place for the Broncos was Noelle Lopez in 35th place at 18:21.

In the men's invitational official team results, Santa Clara's top finisher was Robbie Reid, who finished in 12th place at 25:03. Rounding out the top five for Santa Clara: Chris Gumbs was 34th at 25:47, Chris Sampson was 44th at 25:57, Michael Branes was 49th at 26:05, and Stephen Koch was 51st at 26:05.

Santa Clara's ran its `B' women's team in the open and finished fifth in the official team results with 87 points. Jenny Light finished 10th overall, first for the Broncos at 19:38. Rounding out the top five was Erin McCarthy in 15th place overall (19:45), Megan Murnane in 18th place at 20:05, Monica Coen in 21st place at 20:09 and Megah McNamara in 23rd place at 20:21.

The Santa Clara men ran the `B' team in the open race, finishing third with 73 points. In official team results, the Broncos top finisher was Matt Savage in fourth place at 27:00. Rounding out the top five: Garrett Smith was 10th at 27:39; Kevin Senefeld was 11th at 27:42; Mike Calcagno was 20th at 28:12 and Brian Fisher was 28th at 28:43.

Santa Clara's runners who will compete at the WCC Championship on Sat., Nov. 1 at Crystal Springs Course in Belmont, Calif. will not compete next weekend. Those not competing at the WCC meet will close out their season at Shoreline Invitational in Mountain View, Calif. on Sat., Oct. 25.