Saturday, October 14, 2017



Bears Face Top Ranked Talent


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Madison, Wis. - The California cross country teams conquered the competition for the third time this season as they finished strongly against top-ranked teams at the Nuttycombe Invitational at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wisconsin.   
The women placed 15th, while the men took 31st in their trip to the Midwest.  
For the women, senior standout Bethan Knights once again led the Bears with her second top- ten finish this season.  She placed eighth, running a 19:55.3 among top talents like sophomore Ednah Kurgat (19:23.2) from New Mexico and Charlotte Taylor (19:40.2) from University of San Francisco. 
Following shortly behind her, Freshman Brie Oakley placed 26th and was one of the top five freshman finishers in the field.  Oakley crossed the line in 20:19.1  The dynamic duo made Cal one of just five schools to have two runners cross the line in under 20:20.
Trent Brendel once again led the men, placing 109th against runners from the top teams in the nation. The Bears faced off against more than twenty ranked teams in the men's competition.

Head coach Shayla Houlhian was impressed with the women's finish, noting "the women started the day off for the Bears. Their 15th place finish placed them among many of the top ranked teams in the nation. Today wasn't perfect for them which provided an opportunity to continue to grow and work through adversity that comes from running in a giant competitive field. Bethan Knights had a phenomenal race with some of the nations best women. She is continuing to look strong against some of the best in the world."

Houlihan understood the men's finish, but still saw potential in the progress made in today's meet. She notes that "the men had a rough day today. We took a chance and ran a more aggressive race plan early on. We ended up not feeling the greatest off that aggressive start. I'm confident these men will come back stronger in the races to come. Both teams continue to learn and become students of the sport, the best is yet to come."
The rest of Cal's team will compete at the Results from tomorrow's Bronco Invitational tomorrow at Santa Clara University. Results will be updated on this article, but you can follow along with the team on @CalTFXC on Twitter for Live results! 

 

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