Click here to see interview of Robbie Reid and Ben Demaree
BELMONT, Calif.- With two Broncos garnering All-WCC honors at the West Coast Conference Cross Country Championship, the nation's longest-running conference title streak was snapped at 32-straight titles when the No. 3 BYU men topped No. 10 Portland.
The Bronco men were three points out of third, scoring 122 points BYU won with 25 points, Portland was second with 32 and USF was third with 119.
The Santa Clara women were seventh with 178 points. USF won the women's title, finishing with 32 points as runner-up BYU scored 52 points.
Bronco sophomore Ben Damaree was 13th at 24:48 and senior Robbie Reid was 15th at 24:51. Both runners collected All-WCC honors. They were the top two non-BYU and Portland runners in the race.
Rounding out the men's scoring: Austin Jones was 21st at 25:22; Marcos Hinojosa was 36th at 26:15. Kevin Oliver was 37th at 26:20. Also running were Moises Venegas (41st, 26:31) and Peter Stephens (46th, 26:50).
Bronco head coach Felipe Montoro was excited to see Demaree and Reid.
"I am really pleased with the performances of Ben and Robbie," said Montero. "For Ben and Robbie to be in the top 15 in a field like this is pretty amazing. This field was strong. Our future looks bright with Ben leading the way next year. Robbie has been such an important part of the program. I am really proud of what he has done over the years and he sets such a great example for Ben."
Montoro also talked about the team's performance.
"I think the guys that competed, competed extremely hard and as well as they could have on the day," commented Montoro. "It's disappointing to be three points out of third. I am a little bit disappointed by the finish but please with our efforts overall. We were so close."
On the women's side, Mary Reynolds and Mary Kreige were the Broncos top two runners. Reynolds ran 22:36 to finish 28th and Kreige ran 22:40 to finish 32nd. Rounding out the Bronco scoring: Erin Hartwig was 35th at 22:42; Carey Parker was 41st at 22:59 and Erin McCarthy was 42nd at 23:19. Hayley Ney was 53rd at 23:19 and Nicole Giove was 56th at 23:45.
"Erin Hartwig and Carey Parker really stepped it up for us today. Without them it would have been really rough," said Bronco assistant coach Chantelle Wilder. "It's a tough course and it's only the second time we have run 6K all season. I am not thrilled with how we placed but I think we finished where we expected. It's cool to be a part of one of the best conferences in the nation. Our team's got to see what it's going to be like to run regionals in a couple weeks. It's not going to be tougher, but it's going to be a lot deeper."
Notes: LMU's Tara Erdmann broke her own Crystal Springs Course 6k record by 20 seconds. Her 2011 time was 20:01. The men's race was won by BYU's Miles Batty in 23:47.
