The Santa Clara men's and women's cross country teams made the short drive on Saturday morning to compete in the Stanford Invitational. It is one of the largest cross country races in the nation with over 50 Universities and over 2400 High School students racing during the day. Late Sept. Stanford Inv, weather is traditionally toastie and the 2010 version didn't disappoint as temperatures soared  into the 90's during some of the races.   The men were 13th and the women were 15th.

The Bronco women took 15th place in a crowded field and were led by Los Altos freshman Erin Hicks running a very even paced race. Hicks finished in 58th place (212 runners) and was timed in 22:23 completing her first ever 6000m race. A close trio of Broncos followed in a nice pack: Seattle sophomore Carey Parker (113th; 23:31); Eugene freshman Allie Sibole, (114th; 23:3); and Scotts Valley freshman Lauren Germany, (116th; 23:32). Glendale Soph Erin Hartwig closed out the Bronco scoring in 137th - 23:59.

The Broncos had a few setbacks in this race and look to rebound in two weeks at the San Francisco State Inv  in Golden Gate Park.  Santa Clara hosts the Bronco Invitational on Oct. 16.

On the men's side, there were some outstanding individual performances Saturday, but overall its youth and inexperience was a little exposed in a very competitive field.

"We had a few of our scorers not finish the race which hurt our team score," said associate head coach Felipe Montoro. "On the whole we had a decent day and have plenty of time to fill some holes in the top five and be competitive for a finish in the top half of the conference and be competitive with the teams we think we can run with at the regional meet."

Freshman Ben Demaree and Sophomore Kevin Oliver ran a well-paced race and executed the race plan very well. They both had outstanding races, with Demaree running 25:03 (SCU Freshman record for 8k) and Kevin Oliver running 25:06. Matt Savage continued his string of PR races and was fourth for the team in 26:05. With a few guys not finishing, Gareth Morls' performance was key in securing a respectable team finish.  

"The team are looking forward to our next competition," said head coach Tom Service.