SAN FRANCISCO –
Mary Jo Gallegos continued to pace Dominican women's cross country as she led her team to a 10th place finish at the San Francisco State Invitational. On the men's side,
Jose Lain-Straus led the Penguins to an 11th place finish in the 8k at Golden Gate Park.
Concordia University Irvine won the women's race with 57 points, narrowly topping Cal State East Bay by a single point. The Penguins finished with 298 points to top Holy Names in the 6k. Simon Fraser won the men's meet with a perfect score of 15 with Concordia University Irvine finishing second with 62 points.
Gallegos finished 68th with a time of 25:59.3 as she beat out Lauren Reinhardt by 11 seconds and her time was good enough for 15th best in Dominican's NCAA Division II history.
Emma Wuelfing narrowly fell behind Jasmine Conchas of Fresno Pacific by two seconds to finish 78th with a time of 27:18.1.
Sophia Zertuche finished next in 80th with a time of 28:28.5 to top the Sunbird's Yeimy Vazquez.
Sienna Fassett was also in a tight contest with a runner from FPU as she was able to gain nine seconds of separation to top Maribel Aguilar for 83rd with a time of 29:33.7. Sarah Chavez was next to cross for the Penguins with a time of 31:08.6 to top Victoria Milev of San Jose State by 11 seconds. Caytlin Capulong rounded out the women's squad with a time of 33:06.8 to finish 91st overall in her first ever cross country race for Dominican.
With several top runners heading to Illinois to race tomorrow, Lain-Straus led the men with a time of 31:30.3 to beat out Ethan Loomis of William Jessup for 102nd.
Cisco Gonzalez finished 105th with a time of 32:44.6, beating three runners from Pacific Union by more than one minute. Ethan Villanueva participated in his first cross country race coming to Dominican as a pole vaulter for the track team. Villanueva battled through adversity to finish in a time of 49:56.2 with
Hayden Peregrino rounding out the Penguin squad with a time of 50:30.9.
Several runners will compete for Dominican on Saturday at the Lewis Conference Cross Over at the Lewis Cross Country Course in Romeoville, Illinois.
