Broncos Race Past Competition

Cross-country posts career marks at home invitational

Claire McLoughlinTHE SANTA CLARAOctober 23, 2014

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]aturday was a day of personal bests and major improvements for the Santa Clara men and women’s cross-country teams.

The Broncos hosted the Bronco Invitational at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale and raced against programs from all over the West Coast, including No. 4 Oklahoma State University.

The meet consisted of four races: the women’s 6K Open, the women’s 6K Invitational, the men’s 8K Open and the men’s 8K Invitational. Twenty-two runners competed in a Santa Clara uniform and five set personal records.

The women’s team was led by freshman Graysee Murphy, who set a personal record with a time of 21:59.9 in the women’s 6K invitational race.

Murphy acknowledged that she owes her success to her teammates.

“I look up to the more experienced girls as major role models and without their dedication and knowledge I would not have been as successful this season,” she said.

The men’s team made an impact as well, entering runners in both the 8K Invitational and the 8K Open.

Senior Kurt Ruegg, who had only run the course once back in September, came in 18th overall with a time of 24:04.2. He was the first Bronco to cross the finish line, beating his previous course record by 20 seconds. He credited his improvement to an extra month of workouts that he utilized to get stronger and mentally focused.

“Having those extra weeks of mileage and workouts allowed me to make the jump and gives me confidence that what we’ve been doing has been working,” said Ruegg. “The Bronco Invite was also much more competitive, which makes it a lot easier to run fast.”

The men and women’s cross-country teams will return to Baylands Park to compete in the West Coast Conference Championships on Nov 1.

Claire McLoughlin is a sophomore English major.