Broncos travel to Indiana for meet

By Joe Doss-Antoun

The men's and women's cross country teams raced across the country last week.

On Sept. 29th, half of the team traveled to South Bend, Ind., for the Notre Dame Invitational, while the other half remained in the Bay Area to run in the Stanford Invitational on the 30th.

"We were very pleased with our performance in Indiana and at Stanford," said head coach Tom Service. "It's always nice to have the numbers to be able to send quality teams to both races."

The lady Broncos started the weekend off on a high note when four women finished the five-kilometer race in the top 40. Led by senior Shannon Bell, who finished 6th overall, the women finished 7th out of 24 total teams.

The women's team got a large contribution from a couple of freshmen when Anne Murphy-Hagan and Lauren Swigart finished 16th and 17th, respectively.

"We've gotten a lot of support from our freshmen," Service said. "Three of our top seven women at Notre Dame were freshmen so that bodes well for our future."

Also finishing in the top fifty was sophomore Anna Wheatley. Her final time of 18:56 was good enough for 40th overall.

"Anna Wheatley was a track star who set a lot of Santa Clara's records last year so we definitely think she will be a big addition to the cross country team," said Service.

Despite the Broncos 7th place finish, the women's chances of finishing in first was definitely within grasp, Service said. "If we had one more top 50 finish then I think we could have done it," said Service.

On the men's side, Mike Delaurenti was the only Bronco to rank in the top 50, as he finished 41st. Despite efforts from Chris Gumbs and Chris Furnari, who both bested their personal times from last year's Notre Dame Invitational, the Broncos finished16th out of 25 teams.

In heavy contrast to the first-year runners on the women's team, the men's team failed to have any freshmen who were able to finish in the top 100.

"It's much more difficult for men to make an impact as freshmen because of the leap they have to make from the high school to the collegiate level," said Service.

In high school, both men and women cross country runners compete in five-kilometer races. In college, women compete in five or six kilometer races while the men's competition raises to either eight or 10 kilometer races.

Overall, however, the Broncos see the high level of competition at the Notre Dame Invitational as a way to prepare them for future competition.

"Notre Dame presented us with a large field and a lot of competition. Early races really toughen up our runners, so a big performance won't be too much to ask for when the WCC and NCAA championships come around," said Service.

While one half of the cross country team flew to Indiana on the Sept. 29, the other half traveled by bus to nearby Palo Alto for the Stanford Invitational that was held on Sept. 30.

The women's team continued their impressive running as four women finished in the top fifteen overall in the five kilometer race. Sophomore Danielle Miller finished with a time of 19:24, which earned her a third place finish. Freshman Alyssa Erickson-Wayman finished 14 seconds later, which was good enough for 5th place.

Both the men's 4 kilometer and 8 kilometer races followed the women. Sophomores Ben Snyder, Jay Cadwell, and Vinod Kamath finished in the top 50.

In the latter race, sophomore Daniel Smith led all Broncos with a 109th overall finish as he broke the 26 minute mark for the first time in his collegiate career.

Smith was followed by freshman Andy Backus, who experienced a strange twist of events early in the race. Shortly after the race got underway, Backus' shoe was stepped on by another runner and he was forced to run the remainder of the eight-kilometer race with only one shoe.

"I've seen something like that before, but never with our team," said Service. "Luckily the terrain wasn't too rough for him, and he was able to finish the race."

Despite the fact that Backus ran the race with only one shoe, he managed to record his fastest 8 kilometer time of the year.

Upon returning from Notre Dame and Stanford, the Broncos schedule gives them two weeks to rest and prepare before hosting the Bronco Invitational in Sunnyvale, which will be held on Saturday.

When asked about his team's plans for the two weeks before the Bronco Invitational, Service simply said with a laugh, "Work hard."

With the extra time to prepare and the addition of second team all-conference runner, Veronica Vazquez, who was injured last May, the Broncos hope to pick up the pace going into the WCC and NCAA championships in the coming weeks.

And performing well this weekend would definitely be a step in the right direction.

Contact Joe Doss-Antoun at (408) 551-1918 or jdossantoun@scu.edu.