The 2000 Stanford Invitational cross country meet, held Sept. 30 at the Stanford Golf Course, fielded nearly 100 teams from various colleges and universities and hundreds more from high schools all over the state. The competition concluded almost three hours after it started, as Saturday was a long day for the Hornets, and not just for the hours spent at the mammoth event.

“We had some let downs,” said head coach Joe Neff. “Some people just didn?t come out and perform as well as they are capable of performing.”

The “let downs” led to Sac State?s lowest men and women team finishes of the season so far. The Hornet women finished 16th out of 21 teams while the men ended up second to last in a group of 18 teams.

“That was the best competition we have seen to date and the best competition we will see until conference,” Neff said, referring to strong programs such as UCLA, UC Irvine, and Stanford.

But Neff hinted that although the competition was among the best in the nation, there were other reasons the Hornets struggled.

“I don?t know if there was some illness or if we trained too hard last week,” Neff said. “It may be time to reevaluate training.”

Craig Farley and Melissa Madeson showed no effects of either illness or fatigue and were bright spots for their team.

“I?m really pleased with Melissa Madeson. She had a good race and we learned some technical things that will help her in the future and on into conference,” Neff said. “And Craig Farley did get out good and ran pretty much the race of his life.”

On Saturday, Madeson finished with the 19th fastest time at 18:23. Farley was Sac State?s top men?s finisher for the second time this season with a 26th place time of 26:07. Sac State?s Tina Limon turned in a strong performance as well, finishing in 37th place with a time of 18:41.

Farley has shown steady improvement all season and is turning into a fierce competitor for the men while Madeson has consistently been the top finisher for the Hornet women all season.

Despite the disappointing team results at the Stanford meet, and with a week off to rest his team, Neff retains faith in his athletes.

“We are good. We have talent here. I know we will exceed our preseason rankings, and . . . I think we can exceed our place at conference a year ago,” Neff said. “Now is where it gets into the artistic part of coaching.”