Men’s and Women’s cross country result

On Saturday the women’s cross country team won the University of San Francisco Invitational by nine points over San Jose State University. The men’s cross country team was edged out by four points to finish second behind the University of California.

Nine schools from throughout California competed at Lindley Meadows in Golden Gate Park where the terrain was more rugged than what most of the participants were used to. Despite the difficult course, Sac State’s women’s and men’s teams both produced outstanding performances with four top ten finishers.

Allegra Porter of Saint Mary’s won the 2.7-mile race with a time of 16 minutes, 17 seconds. Melissa Madeson, a fifth year senior, led the way for Sac State, finishing 20 seconds behind for second place. Strong finishes from senior Molly Peterson coming in 5th with a time of 17:11, senior Jennifer Burkhalter coming in 7th with a time of 17:20, and senior Annette Corey finishing 9th with a time of 17:35, helped the Hornets to capture the meet.

“We trained really hard this summer and it paid off in this race,” Peterson said. “We just tried to stay close to Melissa throughout the race so that we would have tight spread times.”

Cal’s Marty Conrad, a senior, won the 4-mile race with an overall time of 21:11. His freshman teammate, Gilliat Ghebra, completed the rough and muddy course only four seconds later for second place. The Hornets were led by third place finisher, senior Cuco Chavez, who finished in a time of 21:20.

“Our team is really coming together,” Chavez said. “We are getting stronger each week.”

Three of Chavez’s teammates posted a top ten finish. Ben Morales, a junior transfer student finished fifth, 14 seconds behind the leader, while senior Jake Mills and freshman Tom Getchell finished in 9th and 10th places, respectively, to help the team earn their second place finish.

“The freshmen are doing great and they are a big help to the team,” Mills said.

Chavez has placed among the top three finishers for his second straight race. Last week he won the Hornet Harrier Classic opener, a great start for what promises to be a great season for his final year.

Next Saturday the cross country team will compete in the Aggie Invitational hosted by UC Davis. “The Aggie Invite is always a mystery to me because of the increased distance of the course and the amount of extra training we are currently doing,” head coach Joe Neff said.

Both the men and the women will run longer distances, with the men running a 5-mile course and the women running a 3-mile course. Fortunately, the terrain in Davis will be flatter which should allow the team to clock in fast times.

The teams will be hard at training at 6 a.m. for this upcoming meet. “We are really excited about this weekend because we are on a roll and want to keep improving,” Neff said.