Sept. 29, 2006

Quotes

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --The Santa Clara men's and women's cross country team spent the afternoon at the Notre Dame Golf Course for the Notre Dame Invitational, and behind spectacular performances by Shannon Bell, Anne Murphy-Hagan, Lauren Swigart and Anna Wheatley, the women placed 7th out of a field of 24 teams. On the men's side, junior Mike Delaurenti set the pace as the only Bronco to come in under 26 minutes as the men took 16th place out of a field of 25 teams.

Almost all of the Broncos who had participated in the Notre Dame Invitational in 2005 improved upon their times in 2006. Shannon Bell sliced 12 seconds off her time, while Mike Delaurenti came in almost a minute faster. Chris Gumbs took 28 seconds off his 2005 performance and Chris Furnari was over two minutes faster than in 2005.

In addition, out of the seven Santa Clara women who ran Friday, four of them posted their fastest times so far this season as the women's team muscled their way to a 7th place finish. And for the third time this year, Shannon Bell was followed by a very strong supporting cast, with freshman Anne Murphy-Hagan and Lauren Swigart crossing the finish line only ten places behind. Lauren Swigart continues to race at a very high level, finishing right behind Murphy-Hagan in 17th place, and sophomore Anna Wheatley closed a huge gap from her last race to finish at 18:56 in 40th place.

For the men's team, junior Mike Delaurenti was the first Bronco to cross the finish line, and was the only one to come in under 26 minutes. Chris Gumbs came in at 26:13 as the pair reversed their finishing order for the first time this year after Gumbs led the team in the previous two races. As for the rest of the men, they filled in the scoresheet in almost the exact same order as in their last race at the Sundodger Invitational, with junior A.J Blumel, and freshmen Alex Harkins and Steven Koch rounding out the Broncos top-5.

And the Broncos aren't done yet. Saturday, those who did not travel to Notre Dame will be at the Stanford Invitational. The Broncos will be participating in four of the five collegiate races, with the first one getting underway at 4:15 p.m.

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