Bernal Leads Gators to 2nd Place Finish in Own Invite

10/11/2013 7:15:00 PM

SAN FRANCISCO— Running in her first meet of the season, Zuleima Bernal led the Gators to a second place finish in the SF State Invitational at Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadows. Bernal ran a second place time of 21:37.1, five seconds behind first place finisher Courtney Anderson.

:Our women were impressive, Zulie had an incredible performance in her first race this season," said SF State head coach Tom Lyons. "Paxton continues to run well giving us an outstanding 1-2 up front, while Alicia had her best cross country race ever today." "Plus Kaylie's on her way to another great postseason."

Things are coming together as we head toward November. Today's result was well deserved and a product of the team's hard work and focus this year.

As a team, the Gators finished in second place with 70 points. Cal State Stanislaus won the invitational with 38 points. Finishing five points behind SF State was Humboldt State in the seven team invitational.

Finishing behind Bernal was Paxton Cota, who ran a 22:27.4 to finish in fifth place. The next Gator to cross the finish line was Alicia Trujillo, who ran a 23:00.9 to place in 17th place in the 6K race.

Kaylie Belk was next for the Gators as she finished in 24th place with a time of 23:21.1. Finishing in 42nd place for SF State was Becky Parks with a time of 24:21.5. Rebecca Nunez finished in 63rd place with a time of 25:24.9 followed by Amanda Kalbarczyk (80th, 26:24.8).

After the conclusion of the men's race, the Gators recognized their senior runners in Kaylie Belk, Zuleima Bernal, Rebecca Nunez, Becky Park and Alicia Trujillo.

SF State will return to the course next week, when the Gators participate in the Santa Clara Invitational on Oct. 19. This will be their last meet heading into the CCAA Championships on Oct. 26 in Chico, Calif.