XC: Several Gaels Have Record Setting Day At Bronco Invite
10/15/2011 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - The Saint Mary's men's and women's cross country team traveled to Sunnyvale, Calif. to compete at the Bronco Invitational hosted by Santa Clara University on Saturday morning. The weather was perfect for racing on the very flat, fast Baylands Regional Park course. The race saw several personal records by the Gaels however the overall performances from the varsity squads were under expectations.
"We were hoping for a much better showing from the men's team," said head coach Marty Kinsey. "The women didn't fare too badly, but performances could have better across the board. The teams looked pretty heavy and tired out there. The bottom line is they have put in a lot of hard work and the coaching staff will have to get them feeling fresh for conference finals in two weeks."
Despite the struggles on both sides, seven runners managed to set new personal-records. Making a big jump for the Gaels was freshman T.J. Brown-Pinizzotto. Brown-Pinizzotto came through the finish line in 26:58, a 52 second lifetime improvement. "T.J. ran with guts today and he also ran smart. He had a plan going in and he executed it to perfection," said associate head coach Mark Carberry.
Also making a big jump, and earning a spot on the conference team was freshman Gilbert Mundo. Mundo finished the Open race with a 1:05 personal best of 27:21. "Gilbert has had some challenges racing this season. His workouts have all been spot-on but race day has proven tough figuring out the 8k distance. Today we set up a plan for him and he ran very well. His achievements today and work ethic at practice earned him another race in two weeks," said Kinsey.
Rounding out the men's personal records were freshman Justin Jayme in 28:00 (47 second improvement), sophomore Chris Garcia in a time of 27:42 (10 second improvement), and junior Jordan Lerma running 26:09 (three second improvement) and also a 1:29 improvement from his time at this race a year ago.
For the women, freshman Cristina Garcia improved her personal-record by 13 seconds to 18:35. Sophomore Alicia Doohan clocked in at 18:54 for a nine second PR and her first time under the 19 minute barrier.
Rounding out the day for the Gaels on the men's side were sophomore Rajpaul Pannu (25:25), freshman Nick Ellingson (27:14), freshman Zach Newsom (27:33), junior James Hayes (27:47), freshman Marc Klunk (28:00), junior Tony Venegas (28:36), and senior Mark Blucher (29:16).
For the women, senior Natalie Sojka (18:44), junior Maria Ahlqvist (19:09), junior Erin Burke (19:37), and junior Elizandra Obando (19:41)
The Gaels will prepare over the next two weeks for the West Coast Conference Championships on October 29th at Crystal Springs in Belmont, Calif.
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