Santa Clara's men's cross country team finished 21st at the NCAA West Regional in Sacramento, Calif. on Friday. The women's team finished 24th. The Stanford men won the title with WCC opponent Portland finishing third. The Arizona women won the title with San Francisco finishing fourth.
"I was very pleased with our men's effort. It is disappointing to finish in 21st, but I really can't fault the guys who ran," said Bronco head coach Felipe Montoro. "They executed our race plan well and were fighting for every place, we just fell a little short of our goal."
Santa Clara was led by Adrian Hinojosa who finished 83rd at 31:39. Sam Holeman was 95th at 31:53. Luca Signore was 110th at 32:07. Ezana Tesfu was fourth for the Broncos at 32:20 and Moises Venegas rounded out the scoring for SCU in 140th place at 32:53. Ben Demaree also competed and finished in 149th at 33:07.
"Adrian and Sam ran strong for us in the 1 and 2 spots, and have a bright future," added Montoro. "Our four seniors (Luca, Ezana and Moises and Ben) really gave everything they had today. Ezana, Moises and Ben were all banged up and not able to run to their potential, but still fought hard. Ben will get another chance next year, as we just found out the NCAA approved a 5th year for him based on a medical redshirt. Luca has been solid all season. I am proud of our guys and we now turn our attention to the track."
"Collectively, I was not satisfied with our women's performance, our expectations were higher than our finish," said Montoro. "We are better than 24th in the region, unfortunately we have to wait until next year to prove it. For whatever reason it was hard for our women to really engage and compete hard today, so that is something we are going to have to look at."
Mary Kriege, who has led the team all year, finished first for the Broncos in 80th place at 21:03. Lauren Germany was second at 21:37 in 116th place. Kelly Ryan finished third for SCU at 22:09 in 156th place. Allison Maio was 163rd at 22:16. Audrey Hiatt rounded out the Bronco scorers in 164th place at 22:17. Also competing for the Broncos were Kayla Germany (22:34, 181st place) and Emily Robinson (22:36, 186th place).
"Mary Kriege was tough as always and Allison Maio rebounded well from WCC's," said Montoro. "Kelly Ryan was great through 5k, but fell back a bit in the last K. I will say that overall, this was a successful season for us. There was a lot of improvement and a lot of positives to take away as we move on to track this spring."