ST. PAUL, Minn. — There's not much room left for
Aoibhe Richardson to keep climbing.
Saturday, she found a way to do even better than her season-opening runner-up finish, as she won the 2019 Roy Griak Invitational going away – by more than 11 seconds – as she powered the University of San Francisco women's cross country team to a sixth-place finish, while the USF men finished 10th, at the prestigious meet hosted at the University of Minnesota's Les Bolstad Golf Course.
WOMEN
Richardson dominated the field, easily breaking the 21-minute mark with a winning time of 20 minutes, 47.7 seconds over the 6-kilometer course. That was nearly a minute faster than her season-opening time of 21:39.3 on Aug. 31 at the USF Invitational, where she finished second to San Jose State's Jenny Sandoval. Saturday, Richardson bested a field of nearly 150, including beating runner-up Alexandra Hays of nationally ranked Columbia by 11.2 seconds (20:58.9).
"Aoibhe executed a nearly flawless race," said San Francisco Director of Track & Field and Cross Country
Pat McCurry. "To win here and run under 21:00 on a really tough course puts her in very rare company."
The race included six regionally ranked teams and three that were ranked or receiving votes in this week's USTFCCCA national poll. The Dons packed extremely well behind Richardson, with the 2-through-5 scorers finishing within 38 seconds of each other, and the six Dons following Richardson's dominating performance all within 96 seconds of each other.
Elissa Mann was USF's No. 2 finisher for the second time in as many races for her, as she grabbed a 37th-place finish in 22:33.4. Freshman
Eve Jensen gave the Dons three in the top-50, coming in 50th place with a time of 22:44.5.
Anna Tait was 66th in 23:03.5, and freshman
Sophie Soefeldt rounded out the Dons' scoring in 72nd place with a time of 23:11.2.
Abigail Pradere – in only her second career cross country race ever – ran 23:53.4 to finish in 107th. Senior
Josien Scheepens capped USF's top-seven by finishing 113th in 24:10.4.
MEN
Andy Snyder used his experience to carry himself to a top-15 finish in the men's race and lead the Dons to a 10th-place team showing. Snyder ran a season-best 25:06.6 across the 8 km course to finish 11th overall.
"Andy's experience paid off navigating an extraordinarily challenging 8k course," quipped McCurry.
Snyder and the Dons were up against a field that included seven regionally ranked squads – two of which were ranked or receiving votes in this week's USTFCCCA national poll. Saturday was the first time the Dons had a mostly full squad – though senior
Hugh Nicklason was held out.
Minneapolis native
Caleb Haugland was the Dons' No. 2 runner, finishing 45th in 25:52.9, less than a second off his season-opening best 8 km time of 25:52.3.
Jacob Hernandez was not far behind as the Dons' third runner, posting a time of 26:05.3 to finish 57th.
Sam Stevens was 66th in 26:22.3.
Daniel Maneloveg rounded out the Dons' scoring group with a time of 26:24.2 to finish 68th.
Hiruy Alemseged finished 116th in 29:49.4. The Dons' scoring five packed well, finishing within 77.6 seconds of each other and averaging a sub-26 minutes 8 km as a team.
"Our lack of experience in other spots and lack of depth hurt us today, but another few weeks of work will help and we gained a lot of high-level experience today," said McCurry.
San Francisco will rest for two weekends before competing on Oct. 19 at the Pre-Nationals Invitational hosted by Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind., the site of this year's NCAA Division I National Championships.
