Strides Made at Gator Invite
By Ryan Marshall
The Santa Clara men's and women's cross country teams participated in the Gator Invitational in San Francisco this past Friday. Several Broncos posted personal bests in their races, with the women's and men's teams finishing 5th and 6th respectively.
The meet was hosted by San Francisco State University and was held at Golden Gate Park. The Santa Clara cross country program made some great strides.
In the men's 8K course, freshman Tony Ferrari was out ahead for the Broncos coming in 23rd place with a personal best, 26:03. Teammate Marcos Hinojosa followed closely behind, crossing the line just seven seconds later for a 25th place finish in a field of 163.
The Bronco women were led by junior Hayley Ney in the 6K invitational, who finished in 14th place out of the field of 135. Ney ran the course in 23:14, a pace just 11 seconds behind her personal best – which she set one year ago in the same event.
"It was a little bit of a frustrating race for me this year since in 2010 I PR-ed at this (event)," Ney said in an email. "I wasn't aware of exactly how close I was; however, I can usually judge how I'm doing based off of what (head coach) Felipe (Montoro) is saying to me towards the end of the race."
Arriving shortly behind Ney was fellow junior Erin Hartwig, who eclipsed her personal best for the 6K by a mere four seconds. Her time of 23:27 was enough for her to climb into 23rd place overall.
However, Hartwig didn't see the point in stopping there. A personal best is only just that until a new one is set — a goal for every runner at any level of competition.
"After feeling as good as I did at Gator," said Hartwig in an email, "only PR-ing by a little bit definitely makes me want to push myself even harder to see what else I can accomplish."
With the Bronco Invitational and the West Coast Conference Championships coming up in the next two weeks, the Gator Invitational was essential for those players who hadn't competed in recent weeks.
Montoro, in his seventh year as the Broncos' head coach, outlined the cross country team's two preceding weeks by highlighting the fact that certain meets specifically limit entries to 10 athletes (and sometimes fewer).
"Two weeks prior to the Gator was the Stanford Invitational, and they limit entries to 10," said Montoro. "The following week the women went up to Willamette (University) in Salem, Oregon, and we only took seven athletes to that meet. (The Gator Invite) was an opportunity for (everyone) to get back and competing again."
Hartwig and the rest of her teammates will have one more chance to set new personal records heading into the postseason. Hosting the annual Bronco Invitational this weekend in Sunnyvale is something for which players and coaches alike are excited.
Part of that optimism comes from the success they had in San Francisco.
"I was really pleased with how we ran this past weekend," said Hartwig. "I was most impressed with how packed up our team was and I think that's something that will really help us for the Bronco (Invitational) and going into the postseason; a lot of the girls running at similar speeds definitely speaks to the amount of depth we have this year."
Montoro spoke not only for himself, but also for the entire team as he looks forward to both the competition and the excitement of hosting an event.
"We're very excited; it's our biggest invite yet in terms of participation from other universities, and it's probably the most competitive as well," said Montoro. "For us, particularly, it's an exciting opportunity to compete at home even though it's not really on campus."
Santa Clara's annual Bronco Invitational is this Saturday at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale with events beginning at 8 a.m.
Contact Ryan Marshall at rmarshall@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.