SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Returning to their home course for the first time since 2019, the University of San Francisco men's and women's cross country teams excelled in their first meet of the 2021 season on Saturday at Golden Gate Park.
Overall, the women finished first out of twelve teams as a group while the men placed sixth out of thirteen teams. Notably, four women and two men placed in the final top-20 in their respective divisions for the Dons.
FINAL RESULTS:
- For the women, USF placed all of their runners in the final top-40 spots. Individually, Ruby Smee finished second (21:16.0), Eve Jensen finished fourth (21:22.3), Zoe Wassell finished fifth (21:26.2), Anna Tait finished eighth (21:45.3), Baneet Bains finished twenty-ninth (22:21.0), Kalii Caldwell finished fortieth (22:35.5), Abigail Pradere finished forty-second (22:41.5) and Whitney Hessler finished fifty-fourth (23:05.0). As a team, the Dons tallied 45 points overall to finish in first place. Stanford (52), Gonzaga (97), Santa Clara (97) and Loyola Marymount (144) rounded out the top five.
- For the men, Ed Kiolbasa finished fourth in the heat (24:45.3) while teammate Daniel Maneloveg finished right behind him in seventh (24:49.6). Furthermore, Kip Yegon finished forty-eighth (26:09.1), Hiruy Alemseged finished sixty-seventh (26:57.4), Ben Preddy finished seventieth (27:06.3), Joe Skovron finished seventy-fifth (27:28.0), Dan Skovron finished seventy-seventh (27:34.4) and Carter Lewis finished ninety-sixth (28:52.2). As a team, the Dons tallied 149 points overall, good for a sixth place finish. Overall, the top five consisted of Stanford (49), Cal (66), St. Mary's (78), Stanislaus State (82) and Nevada (125).
CATCHING UP WITH COACH RILEY:
"On the women's side, today was all about executing a race plan and I feel like they did a great job. It is awesome to have
Ruby Smee back on SF soil and see how Eve, Zoe and the rest of the team are in a great spot to kick off the season. On the men's side, we have some work to do, but I am really happy to see Ed and Dan in great form this early in the season. Putting on this meet took a lot of work and I want to thank all of our volunteers, especially
Mark Papadopoulos,
Bill Eddy and their crew for the help. I also want to thank our baseball team for coming out and supporting the Dons!"
UP NEXT:
Looking ahead, USF will compete at the Stump Invitational (hosted by UC Davis) next Friday, Sept. 10 in Davis, Calif. Wrapping up the month, the Dons will travel to the Dillinger Invitational (hosted by Oregon) in Springfield, Ore. on Sept. 22 + 23.
FOLLOW US:
For more information on the USF men's and women's cross country programs, be sure to follow @donsxctf on Twitter, @donsxctf on Instagram and @donsxctf on Facebook.
