SANTA CLARA, Calif. –
University of Idaho sophomore cross country athlete Hannah Kiser is still
undefeated through four meets.
Kiser, a second-year Vandal, showed no signs of slowing down
from her break-neck pace so far this season with an individual title in the
women's invitational race at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational on Saturday.
With a time of 16:55.3, Kiser was the only runner in the
field of 175 to finish the 5000m race in less than 17 minutes and outdistanced
the next-best collegiate runner by more than a 12-second margin. She led the
Vandal women to a fourth-place team finish at the meet with a score of 126.
Junior Barry Britt led the men's team with a 16th overall,
15th among collegians in the field of 167, with a time of 24:21.5 on the 8000m
course. He was joined in the top 20 by senior Stephane Colle, who was the 20th
collegiate finisher with a time of 24:26.6.
As a team, the Idaho men finished fifth with a score of 191.
Jeremiah Dubie, who took 35th overall (24:39.3), senior Markus Geiger, who
finished 46th overall (24:54.9) and senior James Clark (103rd, 25:52.6) rounded
out the team's scorers.
On the women's side, it was a sophomore top-three sweep for
the third meet in a row. Alycia Butterworth was the team's second finisher at
21st overall (17:37.6) and Emily Paradis was the third Vandal to cross the line
at 24th overall in 17:39.5. Senior Julia Veseth (50th, 18:09.2) and sophomore
Holly Stanton (55th, 18:12.3) finished out Idaho's scoring.
Saturday's meet concludes the “pre-season” portion of
Idaho's cross country schedule. The next event on the schedule is the most
important one – the Western Athletic Conference Championships, which will be
held on Saturday, Oct. 29, at Honolulu, Hawai`i.
Idaho's women will try to defend their title after claiming
the 2010 crown last year at Moscow. The Vandal women will be going for their
fourth title in seven years, while the men's team, which has multiple top-three
and runner-up finishes since joining the conference, will try to break through
for its first WAC title.
