University of San Francisco Athletics

MEN'S RESULTS | WOMEN'S RESULTS

PROVO, Utah — The San Francisco men's and women's cross country teams continued their ascension Saturday and kicked off the postseason with two top-four finishes, as the Dons finished among the conference's best at the 2018 West Coast Conference Championships held at East Bay Golf Course.
 
WOMEN
 
The women's team made another big leap Saturday after also showing much improvement two weeks ago at the Pre-Nationals Invitational. San Francisco finished third with 76 points, far outdistancing fourth-place Loyola Marymount (115) and placing four among the top-15.
 
Tatjana Schulte led the Dons for the second straight meet, finishing seventh in 21 minutes, 5.60 seconds. She was the lone runner not wearing a BYU or Portland jersey to finish among the top-10, and beat out both of those schools' 4 through 9 runners. Megan Davies was not far behind, finishing 11th overall as USF's No. 2 runner just 12 seconds behind Schulte in 21:17.60.
 
Alena Ulrichova (14th, 21:41.20) and Lizzie Bird (15th, 21:45.20) gave the Dons four top-15 finishers and cinched the Dons' 1-4 pack time at an impressive 39.6 seconds. Josephine Brysting placed 30th in a time of 22:34.50 to round out the Dons' scorers. Merel Van der Marel finished 47th in 23:04.10 in her first race since the season opener on Sept. 1. Valerie Almanza posted a time of 23:12.10 to grab 49th place.
 
BYU won the team title and the individual title. Erica Birk won the women's race in 19:45.60. The Cougars placed six runners in the top-10 to run away with the title at 27 points, beating out runner-up Portland, who had three in the top-five, but was beaten by the Cougars' pack.
 
MEN
 
Chris Olley finished sixth overall Saturday and the USF men placed fourth as a team, just behind three nationally ranked programs. The Dons scored 120 points in the championship race, just 26 behind No. 26-ranked Gonzaga who finished third.
 
Olley stayed in touch with the lead group all race and finished wonly 19 1/2 seconds behind race winner Nick Hauger from Portland, posting a time of 23:40.30. He broke up a big group of BYU runners that would have otherwise had six runners in a row without him in the mix.
 
Jack Rowe gave the Dons two in the top-20 with a 17th-place finish in 24:21.50. Scott Halstead was San Francisco's third runner in 30th place, breaking the 25-minute mark with a time of 24:59.60. Daniel Maneloveg (35th, 25:15.20) and Caleb McClain (40th, 25:31.90) packed well to round out the Dons' top-five, helping USF's 3-4-5 group finish within 32.3 seconds of each other.
 
Hugh Nicklason finished 48th in 25:53.70, and Jacob Hernandez placed 55th in 26:27.30.

COACH McCURRY QUOTES

"The ladies executed the race plan beautifully today, and I'm very happy too have our top-four all in the top-15. We've got a great opportunity to take another step in two weeks at the regional."

"Training fatigue and altitude definitely showed on our guys today, but I thought their commitment in the last third of the race was really strong. Huge for us to have Scott Halstead back in the mix, he's a difference maker."
 
COMING UP
 
The Dons will now prepare for the NCAA West Region Championship race, to be held on Nov. 9 at Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento, Calif. That race will decide what teams will represent the West at the NCAA Championships on Nov. 17.