It was a victory for both the San Francisco men’s and women’s cross country teams in Toledo, Ohio on Friday. Women finished second place overall as a team, and the men’s team placed third.
The USF runner with the highest individual finish on the women’s side was from freshman Elena Burkard, coming in at seventh place. Burkard ran with a time of 13:26.1, the second fastest freshman time overall in the 4k race (about 2.5 miles). The Dons had four women in the top 20 runners — following Burkard, junior Eva Krchova finished ninth, senior Chloe Treleven placed twelfth, and senior Alice Baker crossed the line at twentieth. Out of the 14 teams who participated in the Toledo Bubble Buster, San Francisco was the only school other than Butler to have four women in the top 20.
“Something different about this race is that it’s only a 4k, and normally in cross country we do the 6k,” Treleven said, “It’s a great way to start it off and a thing about Toledo is that its pretty small, but this year it was a little bit bigger.”
Along with the top four, there were more great times from USF runners junior Maor Tiyouri with a time of 13:59.7, sophomore Kate Jamboretz with 14:24.1, freshman Madeline Haupert at 14:26.6, junior Sarah Pearson with 14:45.0, and sophomore Kailey Ulland with a time of 15:00.5.
“There were 14 teams…obviously we’re way out of our region because we need to go to other schools outside our region in order to pick up points to qualify for Nationals,” Treleven said.
“There is a very complicated point system that gets us there but that’s what you have to do, go outside your region,” Treleven said, and outside their region the Dons will go. Although it is still early in the season, in the Bubble Buster the women beat both the No. 18 Toledo and No. 22 Syracuse teams, pushing them from twenty-third to second place with Burkard’s finish.
Overall, the USF women finished second with 86 points behind Butler with 72 points.
The San Francisco men finished third behind Syracuse and Eastern Michigan with a total score of 68. Junior Jose Madera finished eleventh with an overall time of 19:27.4, followed by 13th place finisher freshman Eric Causey with a time of 19:31.9. Seniors Ganbileg Bor and Steven Garboden had times of 19:56.8 and 19:57.2, respectively. They finished 21st and 22nd, followed by junior Gustavo Mena, finishing with a time of 19:57.7 and placing 23rd. Other race times from the USF men’s side were from junior Adam Smith with a time of 20:25.6, and junior Charlie Johanson with 20:37.2. The men’s race consisted of sixty-five participants from six different schools.
The USF Dons will return to the Bay and have their next meet on Saturday, September 29th at 4:00 pm in Palo Alto at the Stanford Invitational.
