Looking to improve on their last outing at San Diego, the USF cross country team hosted its Fifth Annual Invitational meet this past Saturday in Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately, USF's top female runner, Maureen Kennedy, was not able to run this week due to injuries. Kennedy, however, was not the only Don hobbled for the meet. Kate Beuler was on the sidelines for the women, as were Will Baker and Mike Griffith for the men. Kennedy, for one, did not think the injuries markedly affected the team. "I think that the team did very well," Kennedy said. "Everyone ran really well."
Unfortunately, running well is often subjective, as the final results clearly showed. Overall, the women placed fourth, trailing the Gaels of St. Mary's College, who took first in the nine-team field. USF's leading female runner in this meet was Pantea Jahani with a time of 18:08. Teammates Laura Kuzminsky and Sara Gigliotti placed second and third for USF with times of 18:15 and 18:53 respectively. Also scoring for the women were Katherine Zabloudil and Rachel Bahr.
In the smaller men's bracket of four teams, the results were a bit more friendly to the Hilltoppers. Matt Ziblich came in first for USF with a time of 24:06. Pasquale Meija, 25:09, and Dan Guieb, 25:15, came in second and third for USF. Also scoring for the men were Jeff Lam and Kevin DeMartini. Overall the performance by the team was strong, earning a second-place finish. Is this weekend at all indicative of the rest of the season? Only time will tell, but Ziblich thinks the team will "definitely improve from last season. We've got a couple of new runners and it's still early in the season," he said. Expectations from the men's team are to be more competitive than last season's seventh place finish to somewhere in the middle of the WCC pack. When asked to comment on the team, coach John Drocco said, "They're a great group. I know that it's going to be a good season (TheFoghorn).
