Sept. 28, 2007
Complete Results
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Notre Dame, Indiana -- The Santa Clara women's cross country team kept their hot streak alive as they placed 3rd today at the Notre Dame Invitational. Adriane Puetz led the team for the third race in a row, placing ninth with a time of 18:09 in the field. This was the team's best finish at the ND Invitational after placing 4th last year.
"It's kind of bittersweet," said head coach Tom Service. "We came here thinking we could win it, but we didn't quite race our best and still placed third. It's a credit to [the team] and how far our program has come."
The team ran well today, but Service thinks that there is still room to improve. "Just about everyone set a personal record today and we're still not satisfied because we set such a high mark for ourselves," Service added.
Annie Murphy-Hagan, running in her first race this year after battling health problems, finished second for the Broncos with a time of 18:35 and was 32nd overall.
Melissa Conlin was right behind her teammate, placing 34th with a time of 18:36.
Fourth for the team was Veronica Vazquez who clocked in at 18:44 and 43rd overall.
Danielle Miller put together a breakout performance for the team today. Running with the top seven for the first time this year, she was the team's crucial fifth finisher, placing 46th with a time of 18:46.
QUOTES
Puetz: The course was a little choppy, a little uneven for a golf course... I think we all came together and ran well. The pack was there and that's what we were looking for. We could have been a little faster in that pack. But to place where we did and still want more says a lot about how high our goals are.
Murphy-Hagan: It was great to be running finally again with a team... I'd say we had a really solid pack around the second mile... I wanted to get into compete [being her first race back] and stick with Veronica and Melissa and get to where I was last year, and I did that.
Conlin on getting used to racing in college: It's been getting easier. It's great to be able to run with the team and I've learned a lot by being able to run with them.
Vazquez: Whether it was the course or the travelling, we ran a little slower than we wanted. I would have liked to have stuck with the pack a little longer. We didn't think we did really well, but when we saw the results and we were still up there, it says a lot. And we still have a lot more too.
Miller on running with the top seven: It felt good, I was able to run with the pack again, which always helps.
Marimpietri: It says a lot for the team that we placed our best ever at this race and still wish we had done better.
