(Madison, WI) - The University of San Francisco women's cross country team competed in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational Friday and may have run themselves right into the national rankings.
In all, 44 teams ran in the meet, 18 of which were ranked in the top-30 this week. The Dons finished 17th in the prestigious race, beating six ranked teams, including the only other West Coast Conference team in the race, No. 27 BYU. USF came in just one spot behind Providence, ranked No. 2 in this week's rankings. This was the first time the Dons have run against BYU since the Cougars joined the WCC this season.
"This was an incredibly large race with top teams from every region in the country," remarked head coach Helen Lehman-Winters about the field. "We beat some very good teams in Iowa, Florida, Minnesota and BYU, and hopefully this will potentially help us in our quest for an NCAA at-large berth."
Despite the cold, windy weather, three Dons set personal best times over the 6K course: Chloe Treleven (21:04, 60), Sophie Curl (21:09, 69) and Alice Baker (21:42, 158), who had another terrific meet after placing second in last week's SFSU Invitational. Once again, Laura Suur was the front-runner for the Dons, placing 43rd in 20:55. Maor Tiyouri (21:41, 157) and Kate Jamoretz (23:05, 280) were the other finishers for USF.
Pleased with the team's performance, coach Lehman-Winters saw room for improvement. "For the most part, our women managed fairly well in such a large field but we need to continue to work on closing our gap from three-to-four."
USF earned a single vote in the most recent coaches' poll and will almost certainly garner more next week after their performance in Madison. The Dons finished ahead of ranked teams Minnesota (#21), Florida (#22), Iowa (#23), Princeton (#28), BYU (#27) and Clemson (#30) as well as Indiana who is not ranked but did receive more votes than USF last week.
With the rankings out of their control, the Dons now turn to what they can control: defending their WCC title from 2010. "We are better than we were last year at this time and now have some good momentum going into the WCC championships," Lehman-Winters said.
The Dons' next meet will be the WCC Championships at Crystal Springs in Belmont, CA at 9:00 AM on Saturday, October 29.
USF Results
17. 487 San Francisco (21:19 1:46:31 0:47)
1 43 Laura Suur JR 20:55
2 60 Chloe Treleven JR 21:04
3 69 Sophie Curl JR 21:09
4 157 Maor Tiyouri SO 21:4
5 158 Alice Baker JR 21:42
6 (280) Kate Jamboretz FR 23:05
