Sept. 28, 2002
STANFORD, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's and women's cross country teams continued their progress toward the postseason with strong performances at the annual Stanford Invitational Saturday at the Stanford Golf Course.
The Bronco men finished 11th out of 30 teams in the 8,000-meter race with 328 total points, which was only 11 points shy of a top-10 finish among some of the best cross country programs on the West Coast. Senior Michael Helms led the Broncos for the first time this season, finishing 46th overall in the 230-participant field. Helms covered the course in a season-best time of 24:53, which also eclipsed Charlie Brenneman's best-ever SCU performance at the meet when he ran 25:25 in 2000. Thomas Chapman finished in 67th place overall with a time of 25:14, while freshman John Hinman scored a season-best as the Broncos' third runner with a time of 25:32 and 84th-place finish. Benjamin Gauen and Dominic Ricci rounded out the scoring for the Broncos.
"This was a big confidence boost as we turned the tables on UC Irvine and Fresno State who had beaten us in our first meet of the season. Plus we were able to to defeat UC Riverside in our only meeting of the season," said head coach John Maloney. "Despite narrowly losing to Portland State, this was a breakthrough meet for establishing us as a top 12 team in the West Region as these are four key opponents we need to defeat to reach our goal."
In the women's race, Santa Clara joined some of the best distance squads in the nation and finished 20th in the 33-team field, despite the absence of Kim Bates due to injury. The Broncos were led by sophomore Robin Bell's 79th-place finish in the 234-runner field. She covered the 6,000-meter course in a time of 22:57. Milena Basile finished as SCU's second runner with a 100th-place overall time of 23:12. Katie Hansen, Courtney Daniels and Kiley Strong rounded-out the scoring for Santa Clara.
The Bronco women travel out of the state next week for the Willamette Invitational in Bend, Ore. The men's squad will compete in the San Francisco Invitational at Golden Gate Park.
