Even the surprising precipitation and wind could not dampen the performance of the Sacramento State cross country team on Saturday, when Sac State hosted the Hornet Jamboree.

 

The men finished in second place, scoring 72, and the women finished in third, scoring 65. Like in golf, the lower the score, the better.

 

The men ran a four mile race while the women ran a 5k race.

 

“We had some pretty good performances from the team,” senior captain Scott Grose said. “(It was) our first race as a team and now we just have to work from there. We’ve got Stanford next, so that’ll be good.”

 

Grose finished in sixth-place with a time of 19:58 after winning the event last year with a time of 19:53.

 

Sophomore Chris Romo paced the Hornets with a fourth-place finish and a time of 19:54.

 

“It was a lot of our first races, so we just got the rust out of our legs,” Romo said. “There’s a lot of work to be done to get where we want to be.”

 

The Hornet men had two other top 20 finishers in Dan Mitchell who finished in 15th and Nathanael Litwiller who placed 17th.

 

UC Davis won both the men and women’s event with a score of 23 in the men’s race and 34 in the women’s race.

 

Aggies sophomore Jon Peterson won the four-mile men’s run.

 

“It was my first race back in cross-country because I redshirted last year,” Peterson said. “Coming out here and getting a feel for it again is just what I needed.”

 

Peterson redshirted last year due to a fractured right foot

 

The Hornet women were led by Rachel Mitchell, who finished the race in 18:03 – good for seventh-place overall.

 

Sac State junior Kristina Holtz finished in 12th place with a time of 18:12.

 

“It was a nice first race,” Holtz said. “I think (the race) was about the same size, but the top end was faster.”

 

Holtz thought the team’s performance was solid.

 

“It was the first time we’ve all run together as a team,” she said. “Our spread, one through five, was pretty short. It was a good improvement from last year.”

 

The winner of the women’s 5k was Stephanie Wilson of Santa Clara University. She finished in a time of 17:22.

 

“At some point, I said, ‘I can win this,'” she said. “Right before we came to the hill, I picked it up and the confidence just kept going. It was a great feeling.”

 

Wilson, a senior, said it was the first college race she had ever won.

 

Hornet assistant coach Scott Abbott said the event went off without a hitch.

 

“It went really well,” Abbott said. “Fortunately, we lucked out with the weather. Everyone who came out really enjoyed themselves.

 

“We had good competition in every race, which was nice.”

 

Abbott was satisfied with the overall performance of the teams.

 

“We competed very well,” he said. “You kind of have to shake off the rust a little bit and get some of those competitive jitters out of the way.”

 

Abbott felt the high school element helped this year’s event.

 

“It just brings a lot more people out and puts more people out on the course,” he said. “This is the best Hornet Jamboree we’ve had, and that’s exciting.”

 

Dustin Nosler can be reached at [email protected]