SUNNYVALE, Calif. — At one of the fastest and most competitive races the Gaels will see all season long, Saint Mary's showed up and showed out on Saturday morning at the Bronco Invitational. In recent seasons, SMC has never had a pair of top-ten finishes at the Bronco Invitational on the team side, but that's exactly what happened, as the men finished fourth and the women finished sixth in a pair of deep fields, priming themselves for the WCC Championship in two weeks.
 
INTO THE RECORD BOOKS
It's no secret that Nolan Dozier is one of the fastest Gaels out there, having already been the holder of the fourth-fastest 8k time in Gael history (Santa Clara, 2018). He out-did himself on Saturday, becoming just the fourth Gael to run 8k in less than 24 minutes with a mark of 23:44.9, the third-fastest time in SMC history. That was good for fourth overall in the Bronco Invitational, while his teammate Moses Bojorquez stayed within close quarters. Bojorquez also set a PR and became the fifth Gael to go under 24 minutes with a time of 23:53.8, finishing in sixth overall. For Bojorquez, that's 21 seconds faster than his career-best, which came on September 18 at the UCR Invitational.
 
Lucas Chung (24:26.6, 29^th overall), Sebastian Andersson (24:50.1, 46^th overall), Blaine Reynolds (25:08.3, 60^th overall), and Muhammed Ahmed (25:09.3, 61^st overall) all set personal records with their times on Saturday, and rounded out the field of scorers for the Gaels. Saint Mary's finished in fourth overall at the Bronco Invitational, better than every other WCC team in the field. Also of note, the Gaels ran their fastest time as a team in school history, with an average time of 24:18.86 from their top-five runners.
 
AT THE TOP OF THE RECORD BOOKS
She already held the program record for fastest 6k time, but she continues to one-up herself. Rayna Stanziano broke the program record once again on Saturday at the Bronco Invitational with a time of 20:11.9, shattering the previous mark that she set by 28 seconds. It was an incredible performance in a loaded field of competitors, as she finished with the second-fastest time among WCC runners, and the fourth-fastest time overall. Stanziano now holds the top-two times in SMC history, and four of those top-five times have all some at the Bronco Invitational.
 
The Gaels finished in sixth-place overall and were the third-best WCC team in the field, with San Francisco winning and Santa Clara coming in fourth. SMC had four other runners inside the top-55, with Molly Dreher (21:31.6, 34^th overall), Sylvia Ingram (21:39.1, 39^th overall), Dani Rowlinson (22:01.6, 53^rd overall), and Malia Gay (22:02.0, 55^th overall) leading the way. Dreher, Rowlinson, and Gay all set PRs, while Ingram was within a few seconds of her personal best.

Racing unattached, Hannah Wohlenberg was blazing fast and nearly came away with a win in the open race, as she finished the 6k race in 21:49.2. That mark was just four-seconds off of her pace from the Pacific Invite, where she finished fourth overall. This time around, she was able to finish third place as the Gaels top individual performer.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will host the WCC Championship in Concord on Friday, October 29. More information on the meet will follow, as the Gaels head into the final race of October with loads of momentum.
 
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