"There were some outstanding individual performances today," said Bronco head coach Felipe Montoro. "But our team performances on both sides were not what we are capable of. We have two weeks to correct those areas and be ready for the WCC Championships. Chantelle (Wilder) and I will have to figure out what if any adjustments we need to make before the post season so that the fitness we know the teams' have is translated on race day."
"We were blessed with more than ideal conditions to host the 2011 Bronco Invitational. Fast times were recorded in all four races," said Bronco assistant coach Chantelle Wilder.
The Santa Clara women finished 19th in the Women's Invitational. Mary Reynolds was the Broncos lead runner. Mary Kriege was second, Kelly Ryan was third, Hayley Ney was fourth and Nicole Giove was the fifth Bronco finisher. Long Beach State won the Women's Invitational.
"On the women's side Mary Reynolds had another sub 18:30 performance, and is showing lots of consistency in training and racing. We are looking forward to watching it all come together for Reynold's in the post-season. Freshman Mary Kriege gave an honest effort today despite battling a cold this past week. Also, freshman Kelly Ryan stuck to the race plan of getting out aggressively and took the type of risks needed for her to be a major contributor at the WCC championships in a couple weeks."
"For the women, Kelly Ryan backed up her performance at Willamette with another strong outing. I also thought that Mary Reynolds and Mary Kriege ran tough, as neither was at their best today but they fought through it," said Montoro.
Santa Clara'a women were 10th in the Women's Open with 224 points. Alexandra Garcia finished first for Santa Clara. Amia Nash was second, Kayla Germany was third, Meghan McNamara was fourth and Lauren Spears was the fifth scorer. USF won the women's open with a score of 33 points.
Santa Clara's men finished 12th in the Men's Invitational. Robert Reid was 10th at 24:13.4 and teammate Ben Damaree was fast on his heels at 24:17.3. Ezana Tesfu was third, Marcos Hinojosa was fourth and Richard Zhu rounded out the scoring for the Broncos. Stanford won the Men's Invitational.
"Robbie Reid and Ben Demaree ran outstanding races," said Montoro. "Both were under Robbie's record (24:28) he set at Stanford a month ago. We thought they could get close to 24 minutes today and they did. Both were in the top 15 of a very competitive field and should be proud of their performances. Ezana Tesfu also had a big personal best and ran tough.
Santa Clara's men were sixth in the Men's Open. Anthony Ferrari was Santa Clara's top finisher. Sean Roe was second, Matthew Savage was third, Matthew Wagner was fourth and Garreth Mori rounded out the scoring for the Broncos. LA Trade Technical College won the Men's Open.
"I was very pleased with the meet and want to thank all the teams for coming out participate and make it such a competitive event. I also want to thank all of our alumni and volunteers that helped make the meet a success," added Montoro.
"The event ran smoothly and we would like to thank all our alumni for joining us to celebrate Bronco Cross Country," said Wilder.
