Click here to see photos from the Bronco Invitational
Hosting the Bronco Invitational, the Santa women won the Bronco Open and the men finished second. The Bronco women were sixth in the Bronco Invitational with the men finishing 10th without their top two runners. LMU won both the men's and women's titles at the Bronco Invitational, with Grand Canyon winning the Men's Open. LMU's men bested runner-up UC Santa Barbara 84-86.
"I was really pleased with how the meet turned out," said Bronco head coach Felipe Montoro. "There is no way we could put on a meet of this size without a ton of help. Alumni, parents, administrators and other supporters of the program deserve all the credit for the meets success."
Sixth place is the best finish at Bronco in a long time for the women and Montoro felt today was the most competitive it has ever been. "We will keep pushing toward the post season with high expectations of this group," said Montoro. "Once we get Emily Robinson back from illness, we will be better also."
Mary Kriege led the way with her 14th place finish at 21:08.4 in the women's Bronco Invitational. "Mary continues to impress me with her mental fortitude and ability to get the most of out every race she runs," said Montoro. "She is the gold standard on our team (men and women) on how to race to your full potential."
Lauren Germany was second for SCU in 24th place at 21:21.4. "Lauren continues to improve every week and ran a PR today," said Montoro.
"Kelly Ryan and Alison Maio had break-through performances today," added Montoro. "They ran aggressive and were rewarded with new PR's as well. Audrey was a little off today, but still was able to hold it together and be a solid 5th scorer."
The men had to deal with some adversity, running without All-WCC caliber runners Ben Demaree and Bryan Crook. A few others were sick or coming off an illness. "Things could have easily unraveled, but our men ran well. I thought we competed the best we have all year," said Montoro.
Adrian Hinojosa was the Broncos top finisher in the Bronco Invitational at 24:32.5, finishing in 17th place. "Adrian really impressed today," said Montoro. "Adrian is just starting to figure out how to race the 8k distance and how to compete at the D1 level. His performance today was just the tip of the iceberg - the sky is the limit once his confidence catches up with his talent. Today was a big step in the right direction for him, I am very proud of his race."
Moises Venegas ran a huge PR and finished in 43rd place at 24:55.1. Sean Roe was Santa Clara's third finisher in 58th place at 25:17.5. Ezana Tesfu was 69th in 25:27.9 and Sam Holeman finished fifth for the Broncos in 73rd place at 25:31.9.
"It was really great to see all of Moises Venegas' hard work pay off in his last home meet," added Montoro. "Moises ran a huge PR, despite a really, really fast first few miles. Across the board, our men competed hard. While 10th is not where we expected to finish, considering who we had to hold out, I was very pleased with our race. We now have two weeks to get healthy, sharp and focused on the WCC Championships."
The women won the Bronco Open with Elsa Valenzuela finishing at 22:57.8. Kayla Germany ran a time of 22:58.9 and Kate Yanish finished in 23:18.6. Amia Nash was the fourth Bronco finisher at 24:13.5 and Kaitlyn Kuehn rounded out the Broncos top five at 24:23.8.
"Elsa Valenzuela continued her amazing improvements and earned herself a spot at the WCC Championships with her performance in the open race, which was great to see," said Montoro.
In the men's Bronco Open, Peter Stephens was the team's top finisher in 25:55.3. Leland Wong was second at 27:11.4. Matt Burke finished in 27:29.3. Tony Ferrari was fourth for the Broncos in 28:08.5. Andrew Gaddis rounded out the scoring for the men in 31:48.3.