SAN FRANCISCO – Dominican cross country saw several runners return from early season injuries and illnesses as the men finished 10th and the women ninth Friday afternoon at the San Francisco State Invitational at Golden Gate Park.
Stanislaus State won the men's team title with 24 points while Chico State finished second at 63 points. The Penguins finished with 289 points, one point behind Cal Maritime in ninth and 20 ahead of PacWest foe Jessup. Stanislaus State also won the women's team title with 33 points while Sacramento State was second at 38 points. Dominican finished with 286 points, just one more than Jessup who came in 10th.
Diego Montag led the men's side as he ran in a tight grouping of two other runners but outkicked both down the final stretch of the course finishing in 26:45.4 to take 37th with less than two seconds separating the grouping. Jeroam Wood-Piña was next to cross the finish line as he was neck-and-neck with Michael Lapinski of Cal Maritime but fell by .3 seconds into 95th with a time of 30:52.3.
Javier Machado finished in 97th place with a time of 31:33.2 as he beat Marc Tarango of Pacific Union at the finish line by two seconds.
Danny Salmeron Romo bounced back from some early season hardships to post his personal best time as a collegiate runner finishing 102nd with a time of 33:20.7 in the 8k. Starlight (José) Lain-Straus topped Antonio Leal of Jessup by more than six seconds as he took 106th with a season-best time of 34:15.4 to round out the team.
Sarah Chavez continued to race at a high level for the women as she narrowly missed her personal best time (26:12.5) on a more difficult course finishing 77th with a time of 26:17.5. Chavez also topped Tayla Starr of Jessup by nearly 30 seconds which proved to be the decisive difference for the Penguins on the team leaderboard against their conference foe.
Miranda Lam added an 81st place finish with a time of 27:06.8 to top Lauren Strazzeri of San Jose State.
Sienna Fassett was close behind Lam as she crossed the finish line in 27:50.1 to place 83rd, while
Karsyn Walton finished 89th with a time of 29:51.7.
Vivian Rodrigues set a new personal record for a 6k as she improved her previous best set one month ago by 16 seconds with a time of 34:26.2 to take 98th.
Jaqueline Hurtado rounded out the team with a 101st place finish with a time of 38:02.4.
The Penguins now turn their sights to the Bronco Invitational on Saturday, October 19 taking on a competitive field at Baylands Park in Santa Clara.
