SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State cross country team is back action this weekend when it travels to Northern California to compete in Santa Clara's Bronco Invitational. The women's college invitational 6K is set for 9:30 a.m. at Baylands Regional Park in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Results for the race will be available on Red Cap Timing as well on GoAztecs.com. The course at Baylands consists of low-cut grass and hard-packed dirt paths with a few short, paved sections.
The Aztecs and host Broncos will be joined by fellow Mountain West teams Fresno State, Nevada, San Jose State and Wyoming, along with California, Hawai'i, Houston, Lamar, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland State, Rice, Sacramento State, Seattle, Saint Mary's, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and Utah Valley, among others.
Slated to run for SDSU on Saturday include Paige Comiso, Marissa D'Atri, Lauren Harper, Alex Lomeli, Carlene Masar, Renee Phillips and Naomi Smitham.
Last Time Out
Members of the Aztec cross country team competed in UC San Diego's Triton Classic 6k on Oct. 12, led by freshman Alex Lomeli.
Lomeli, who was running her first collegiate 6k, paced the Aztecs with a time of 23 minutes, 33.7 seconds, good for 16th place (out of 75 runners).
Sophomore Naomi Smitham finished in 24:41.6 (38th place), and was followed by freshman Jessica Kain (24:41.6, 38th place) and sophomore Isabelle Davis (25:37.3; 55th place).
Aztec Storylines
• The Aztecs last ran in the Bronco Invitational on Oct. 18, 2008. SDSU was ninth of 17 in that race, led by Kristen Glen's time of 18:09 over the then 5K course. Rachel Williams (35th, 18:19) and Darien Buc (37th, 18:22) followed closely behind Glen. San Diego State also ran in this race (or reiterations of this race) in 2007 (13th of 16), 2006 (7th) and 2005, when it won the race with 31 points, beating seven other teams. At the time, it was the Aztecs' first team win since the 2003 Long Beach Invitational. Five SDSU runners finished among the top 12 in the 2005 meet, including Lital Azulay, who won with a 5K time of 17:03.10.
• Carlene Masar has been the team's top finisher in all three races she's run in this year.
• The Bronco Invitational is the last Saturday race of the season for SDSU. The Aztecs finish up their regular season on Friday, Oct. 25 at the Titan Invitational in Fullerton, Calif., before heading to Logan, Utah for the Mountain West Championships on Friday, Nov. 1 and to Colfax, Wash., for the NCAA West Region Championships on Friday, Nov. 15.