Oct. 13, 2005

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - With the annual West Coast Conference championships just two weeks away, the Santa Clara University cross country teams will be looking forward to a strong outing as they host the Santa Clara Invitational Saturday morning at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The Broncos welcome a total of 14 teams to the meet, including men's and women's squads from UC Davis, Cal State Fullerton, Notre Dame de Namur, Saint Mary's and San Jose State. The women's teams from the University of Hawai'i and San Diego State will also compete in the meet.

"This close to conference championships, teams are looking to race at courses that aren't quite that demanding and Baylands Park fits the bill perfectly," said SCU head cross country coach Tom Service. "The course is relatively flat so the times will be pretty fast compared to some of the other meets we've competed in. At this point of the season, it's time to start looking ahead to the WCC's and the NCAA regionals so this will be a quality meet for all the teams involved to do just that."

The men's 8,000-meter race begins at 9:30 a.m. with the women's 5,000-meter competition starting at 10:15 a.m. Results will be available by clicking here by noon (Pacific) on Saturday.

For a course map, click here.

Sunnyvale's Baylands Park is easily accessible at the end of Lawrence Expressway off Highway 237 at Caribbean Drive. From Highway 101 take Highway 237 towards Milpitas and from Highway 880 take Highway 237 towards Mountain View. Take the Lawrence Expressway /Caribbean Drive exit, at the first stoplight turn right into the park.

Following the Santa Clara Invitational, a small squad of runners will compete in the Shoreline Invitational in Mountain View, Calif. on Oct.22. The full squad will compete in the West Coast Conference championships on Oct. 29 at the Crystal Springs XC Course in Belmont, Calif.