Sacramento State cross country started its 2005 season with a respectable finish at the University of San Francisco Invitational.

The Hornet men ran their way to a fifth place finish in the 8k race and the women completed their 5k race in seventh place.

Arizona had the top runner of the men’s race in Obed Mutanya, who ran a time of 24:40.7 and took home the first-place finish in the team standings. The Stanford women took first in the women’s competition with the help of a first place finish by Arianna Lambie 18:18.3.

Hornet sophomore Dominic Vogl was the first Sac State men’s runner to cross the finish line with a time of 26:22.8, which was good for 22nd out of the 74 runners to complete the race.

“Dominic looked good, you could see he put the work in during the summer,” assistant coach Juan Vazquez said.

Not too far behind Vogl were his teammates, senior Steven Schnek finishing in 26:38.2 and sophomore Vince D’Onofrio who rann 26:51.2.

The freshman trio of Daniel Grech (27:07.8), Colin Szehner (27:09.9) and Dan Carlson (27:35.0) all ran well in their first NCAA race for Sac State.

“The freshmen said they were nervous but they looked great,” Vazquez said. “We are very happy and very pleased with the freshmen.”

On the women’s side, senior Michelle Garcia was the lead runner for the Hornets in 43rd place out of 120 runners with a time of 19:49.6. Three spots behind her was senior Virginia Grillo in 46th place with a time of 19:51.7.

“The women stayed together for most of the race until about a mile left and then Michelle pulled away a little bit,” Vazquez said.

Behind seniors Garcia and Grillo, the women finished up with strong showings from freshmen Erin Wachter (19:52.9), Kristina Holtz (20:20.0), sophomore Sara Baxter (20:23.8) and senior Brooklynn Solomon (22:00.9).

“This was a great start to the season,” assistant coach Chyllis Scott said. “The meet went very well and the athletes ran real strong.”