SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In what winds up being their final race of the 2021 cross country season, Saint Mary's went out with a bang. Both the women's and men's programs set records with their best finishes at the NCAA West Regionals on Friday morning, and one runner became just the second in women's program's history to earn All-West Region honors.
 
IT'S BEEN A WHILE…
…but Saint Mary's has an All-West Region honor given to one of its runners after her finish at the NCAA West Regional. Rayna Stanziano put a feather in the cap of her historic season by becoming just the second female Gael to earn this honor, with the first being Allegra Porter. Stanziano was in the upper-portion of the pack all morning long, and capped off her season with a 25^th-place finish overall, good enough to qualify for the honor. She ran the 6k race in 20:33.8, a near 40-second improvement from her time at the WCC Championship. She was as high as 20^th overall in the field, and finished just two individual spots back of advancing to the NCAA National Championship.
 
Of course, with the women finishing in 19^th place overall, there were more standout performances than just Stanziano's. Molly Dreher came in second amongst all female Gaels with her time of 22:13.3, a three-second improvement from her time at the WCC Championship. Sylvia Ingram was not far behind, finishing the 6k race in 22:21.9, right around the time she posted a few weeks back in Concord. Malia Gay (22:31.3) and Dani Rowlinson (22:34.8) were the next best finishers for the Gaels, who beat out schools like Arizona State, USC, and came within three points of beating out Santa Clara.
 
MORE TEAM BESTS
The women weren't the only program to finish as high up as any Gaels team has before, as the men's side recorded a 14^th-place finish to secure their best finish at the NCAA West Regionals as well. They found themselves in front of Cal Poly, Arizona State, and Cal to name a few strong programs they leaped over.
 
The format of the men's race was different than the women's, where the men had to race 10k instead of the usual 8k distance. That didn't faze the Gaels, who were led by their two super seniors in Nolan Dozier and Moses Bojorquez. Dozier was the top-finishing Gael with a 38^th-place finish overall and a time of 30:36, where he was four-seconds off of his best 10k time. He did, however, secure his best finish at the NCAA West Regional, after finishing in 45^th in 2018. Bojorquez did set a personal best in the 10k with a mark of 31:00.9, and finished in 53^rd overall, closing out a stellar career with personal bests in 2021. Sebastian Andersson was able to finish ahead of his teammate Lucas Chung in a close battle, with Andersson's 32:03.6 just better than Chung's 32:06.5. Anthony Vazquez rounds out the scoring times for Saint Mary's with his 32:19.8.
 
KINSEY QUOTES
"What a way to finish the season! Both teams had program-best team finishes, we beat several Pac-12 teams that we've never been ahead of before. It's pretty cool to rise up the west region ranks the way we did today. We had some awesome seniors with Nolan and Moses leading the way to finish their cross country careers on a high note. Rayna finishing 25^th earns her West Region honors and she's able to have a great bounce-back race from the conference championships. A fantastic way to finish the season!" – head coach, Marty Kinsey
 
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