Senior Anna Bretan (Novato, California) posted a second-place individual finish to lead the San Francisco State women's cross country team on Friday at the 25th annual SF State Invitational at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Bretan completed the 6,000-meter course with a time of 21 minutes, 52 seconds, finishing just seven seconds behind champion Katie Theisen of the University of St. Thomas (21:45).
As a team the Gators placed sixth out of 11 teams with 155 points, finishing just out of the top five behind Sacramento State, which tallied 150 points. St. Thomas took home the team title with 50 points, followed by Chico State (63 pts.), San Jose State (80 pts.) and San Francisco (124 pts.)
“Overall, I thought I we had a pretty decent day,” said SF State head coach Tom Lyons. “Anna certainly ran a nice race today and we had a nice pack after her. I thought the men had a decent showing as well, and I was pleased with the results. The course looked liked it ran pretty well, and overall I think we're improving.”
Other SFSU competitors included senior Vera Ross (Oakland, California, Campolindo ), who wound up in 36th place out of 109 runners with a 24:17 clocking. Junior Claire Fleming (Rancho Santa Margarita, California, Trabuco Hills) also managed to crack the top 50, finishing in the 45th position with a time of 24:37, while freshmen Rachel Harrington (San Diego, California, LaCosta Canyon) (52nd – 24:56) and Karen Marchan (Orange County, California, LaGun) (53rd – 25:03) rounded out the top five slots for the Gators.
In the men's 8K race, senior Jason Karbelk (La Crescenta, California, Crescenta Valley) was the Gators' top runner, finishing in 15th place among 82 competitors with a time of 26:28, followed by junior Kyle Fujitsubo (Rancho Murieta, California, Sheldon) (22nd – 26:51) and sophomore Max Fernandez (Huntington Beach, California, Edison) (34th – 27:10), while junior Dan Napieralski (Citrus Heights, California) (41st – 27:35) and sophomore Andrew Lavallee (Fairfield, California, Armijo) (50th- 28:04) completed the scoring fivesome for SF State.
As a team, the Gators finished fifth out of eight teams with 121 points, just two points behind fourth-place Creighton's total of 119. The Academy of Art took home the top prize with 34 points, while Chico State (41 pts.) and San Jose State (115 pts.) placed second and third, respectively.
SF State will have two weeks off to prepare for the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, which will be held Saturday, Oct. 25, at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore, Calif. Cal State San Bernardino will serve as host for the event.
