Oct. 18, 2008
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - The San Diego State cross country team had eight runners establish personal records for a 5,000-meter race on Saturday morning at the Bronco Invitational. Senior Kristin Glen, the reigning Mountain West Conference athlete of the week, was one of those eight and led the Aztecs for a third straight meet.
"Today we ran really well," assistant coach Jennifer Nanista said. "The spread between our No. 1 and 5 runners was good. Almost everyone set a new personal record and I am pleased with the way they are competing going into the Mountain West meet."
Glen logged a time of 18 minutes, 9.00 seconds to finish in 28th place at Baylands Regional Park. The Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., native shattered her old personal record of 18:52.00 set earlier this year at the Aztec Invitational back on Sept. 13. More impressive is the fact that Glen completed last year's Bronco Invite in 19:16.00 (92nd place).
Coming in second for SDSU was Rachel Williams with a lifetime-best effort of 18:19.00 (35th). Her performance was 20 seconds better than her previous PR of 18:39.00 also accomplished at the Aztec Invite.
Finishing two spots behind Williams was junior classmate Darien Buc. The Dana Point, Calif., native crossed the finish line in a personal-record time of 18:22.00. Oddly enough, Buc's PR coming into today was 19:12.00 set at the 2007 Bronco Invitational.
Similar to Buc, Sara Cunningham erased a lifetime best that was set during the 2007 campaign. Prior to this morning, Cunningham's top 5K run came at the UC Riverside Invitational when she logged a time of 18:56.10. Today, however, the Torrance, Calif., product recorded a time of 18:41.00 to come in 56th place.
Two spots and two seconds behind Cunningham was Kelly Oelschlager, who finished in 58th place with a personal-best time of 18:43.00. Oelschlager posted a PR that was 1:14.00 faster than her previous best established at the 2008 Aztec Invite. The senior was part of the Aztecs' top five who completed the race within 34 seconds of each other.
The last of the eight to set personal records were a trio of sophomores in Sara Beyers, Michelle Martinez and Andrea Norton. Beyers was nearly 27 seconds better than her previous PR after she navigated the course in 19:03.00, while Martinez was five seconds faster with her time of 19:08.00. Norton, who had run 20:05.00 at the Aztec Invitational, easily broke that record by posting a time of 19:22.00.
As a team, San Diego State finished in ninth place out of 17 teams with 203 points and finished ahead of MWC member UNLV in the standings. It is the fourth time this season SDSU has recorded a top-10 performance.
The Aztecs return to action Saturday, Nov. 1, when they play host to the ultra-competitive MWC Championships at Mission Bay Park.
Bronco Invitational
Baylands Regional Park (Sunnyvale, Calif.)
Team Standings (top five of 17 and SDSU only)
1. Long Beach State - 88
2. Santa Clara - 120
3. Nevada - 127
4. Sacramento State - 129
5. New Mexico State - 143
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9. San Diego State - 203
Individual Results (SDSU only)
28. Kristin Glen (SDSU) - 18:09
35. Rachel Williams (SDSU) - 18:19
37. Darien Buc (SDSU) - 18:22
56. Sara Cunningham (SDSU) - 18:41
58. Kelly Oelschlager (SDSU) - 18:43
73. Sara Beyers (SDSU) - 19:03
77. Michelle Martinez (SDSU) - 19:08
89. Andrea Norton (SDSU) - 19:22
108. Anne Vieira (SDSU) - 19:51