SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – Dominican women's cross country finished 11th of 19 teams Saturday at The Master Invitational 5k at Central Park.

Loyola Marymount of the NCAA Division I won the invitational with 45 points while Biola took second with 76 points. The Penguins finished just shy of the top-10 with 357 points, but beat out NCAA Division I's Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Northridge as well as PacWest foe Hawaii Pacific.

Graduate Julianna Mendez finished tops among all NCAA Division II runners with a time of 17:41.9 as she outkicked LMU's Lilly Schmidt for fourth. Senior Emma Digman was next to cross the finish line for Dominican as she beat out Cal State Fullerton's Melanie Mach for 88th with a time of 20:25.9. Sophomore Isabel Ferris was also in a battle with an NCAA Division I runner as she edged CSUB's Alyssa Diaz by .8 seconds down the stretch to take 93rd with a time of 20:46.3.

Senior Alexa Sullivan and CSUN's Ounessa Nana came down the stretch neck and neck with Sullivan leaning past the finish line .1 seconds ahead of Nana with a time of 21:23.0 to take 105th. Freshman Mary Jo Gallegos rounded out the Penguin squad with a time of 22:52.8 to finish 126th in the 138 runner field.

Dominican will race next at the Santa Clara University Bronco Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 18, at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, California.

Full Results