Oct. 16, 2005

Sunnyvale, CA - Damien Nieves and all four of his teammates ran personal bests Saturday afternoon as Cal State Fullerton's men's cross country squad finished third at the Santa Clara Invitational at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale despite entering the minimum of five runners. With Maria Blazquez running third, the Titans' women's team finished second.

Nieves ran the 8K course in 24:46.73 to trail only Titan redshirt Jordan Horn (23:52.48) and former Titan Nick Arciniaga (24:23.09), each of whom was running unattached. The Titans totaled 67 points to trail UC Davis (22) and host Santa Clara (60).

Blazquez ran the women's 5K course in 17:51.43 and all of her teammates finished in the top 17. The Titans totaled 54 points to trail only San Diego State with 31. UC Davis, San Jose State and host Santa Clara ran third through fifth.

"The women continue to surprise me each week," said Head Coach John Elders. "This performance should give them confidence to compete for one of the higher spots at the Big West Conference meet in two weeks. They ran a very solid race.

"I'm very proud of the men -- all five of them. They get a little better each week and this is a positive note going into the Big West meet."

Complete results are available at:

http://www.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/sacl/sports/c-xc/auto_pdf/SCUXCResults