Milaina Almonte ’27 steals the show at Bronco Invitational

Sports

Oct 22

Santa Clara University’s cross country program hosted its annual Bronco Invitational, featuring men’s and women’s teams from across the western United States, including West Coast Conference rivals, on Saturday at Baylands Regional Park in Sunnyvale.

Milaina Almonte ’27, in a personal-best performance, ran 6 kilometers in 20 minutes, 6.5 seconds to win the individual title and lead the women’s team to a second-place finish.

The Bronco’s top-five runners, whose places counted towards their total team score, were Almonte in 1st, Sarah Guralnick ’28 who placed 5th, followed by Sydney Lim ’28 who finished 27th, Josie Cahill ’29 who came in 44th and Julia Russo ’28 who placed 46th.

156 runners competed in the women’s division, and 15 total women competed for Santa Clara.

Almonte has run a personal best time in all three of her races this season. She finished the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational on Oct. 3 in 20:28.11 seconds, besting her time of 20:37.6 at the USF Invitational on Aug. 29.

The bronco women beat 14 teams, including Pacific, LMU, St. Mary’s and San Francisco, ahead of their rematch at the West Coast Conference Championships on Nov. 1.