SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Dominican cross country showed well in a field of NCAA Division I and top NCAA Division II teams at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational.
Jared Wright led the men on the prestigious invitational side of the men's 8k as he finished third among competitors from the PacWest as he topped Abesolom Teffra of Fresno Pacific by three seconds. Wright finished in a time of 24:09.2 to take 22nd overall also topping runners from Weber State and Loyola Marymount in the top-25.
Jacob Potere was the next to cross in the inviational as he narrowly outpaced Zeno Castiglioni of UC San Diego down the stretch to finish 73rd with a time of 24:45.7.
Stefan Mueller rounded out the men's competitors in the field as he finished 155th with a time of 25:36.4 to beat runners from Idaho State and Grand Canyon.
Jose Lain-Straus led Dominican in the men's open division with a time of 29:25.8 in the 8k to top Connor Chan of cross-bay rival Holy Names.
Cisco Gonzalez finished 224th with a time of 31:42.4 with
Connor Efstathiu placing 235th with a time of 33:42.4.
The women ran in the open division of the 6k with
Mary Jo Gallegos continuing to lead the pack for the Penguins as she placed 140th after topping Caroline Cahilly of the Stanford Distance Club by 1.6 seconds with a time of 25:42.0.
Sophia Zertuche shattered her personal best this season by over a minute and a half as she finished in 26:38.1 to place 160th.
Sienna Fassett also set a personal best by nearly the same margin as she finished close behind Zertuche in 162nd with a time of 26:46.7.
Emma Wulefing narrowly missed out on her best time as she tried to beat out Alex Doyle of Sonoma State down the stretch but could not pass her as she finished 166th with a time of 26:57.9. Competining in just her second race of the season, Sarah Chavez rounded out the Dominican team as she made it three personal records after finishing 181st with a time of 29:09.1, topping her time of 31:08.6 from last week's San Francisco State Invitational.
Dominican will race next at the PacWest Championships on November 5 at Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline Park in San Leandro.
